NATATORES. 433 



to the Southern Ocean, as has been supposed, but are equally 

 numerous in northern latitudes, (excepting, perhaps, the tropics.) 

 From its often breeding with the Penguin, it has been supposed 

 to have a peculiar affection for that amphibious creature, and a 

 pleasure in its company. Their nests are seen together on unin- 

 habited islands, where the ground slants to the sea. As if for 

 mutual protection, the Albatross raises its nest on a hillock of 

 heath, sticks, and long grass, about two feet high, and lays one 

 egg; around this, the Penguins, in a circle, make their lower 

 settlement in burrowed holes in the ground, commonly, it is 

 said, eight Penguins to one Albatross. 



11 The Albatross," says Cheever, " is the most beautiful and 

 lovable object of the animate world which the adventurer meets 

 with in all the South Pacific ; when on the wing, it is the very 

 ideal of beauty and grace. The capture of a whale a thousand 

 miles from land, will bring them trooping from afar, as a carcass 

 in Mexico or Louisiana, will the Turkey-Buzzards. I have 

 watched them singly, keeping company with our ship, and have 

 seen them gathered by hundreds when the cutting-in of a whale 

 along side, allured them from a circuit of five hundred miles. 

 They sit upon the water light and graceful as Swans, and feed 

 on small marine animals, mucilaginous zoophytes, the spawn of 

 fish, and blubber. Not unfrequently, they measure eleven feet 

 from tip to tip of the outspread wings, and weigh from seventeen 

 to eighteen pounds." Another voyager, (Ives,) mentions one 

 shot off the Cape of Good Hope, " which measured seventeen feet 

 and a half from wing to wing." 



In the Arctic Exploring Voyage, Dr. McCormick met with one 

 weighing twenty pounds, and having twelve feet stretch of wings. 

 The Albatross does not seem to be a quarrelsome bird, but when 

 attacked by its enemy, the Skua Gull, it seeks safety in flight. 

 Sometimes, however, it does so by dipping its body in the water, 

 its formidable bill appearing to repel its assailants. When it 

 wishes to rise on the wing, " it has to tread water a long way, 

 like a running Ostrich, before it can attain its due momentum 

 and soar aloft; and when captured, and set at liberty in the ship, 

 it can never, of itself, rise from the even surface of the deck, but 

 we must toss the noble bird overboard, or lift him quite clear of 

 the ship's rail, before he can raise his glorious pinions, and mount 

 aloft in the air." 



Billets of wood with inscriptions upon them, are often attached 

 to these birds before setting them loose ; in repeated instances, 

 such birds have been captured in different and distant latitudes 

 by other ships, and curious information has thus been communi- 



