GRAY WINGS 



237 



tion. Storms, squalls, head winds do not have 

 the slightest effect upon him. Commander 

 Wilkes speaks of him as " resting as it were im- 

 movable in the storm," and many other ob- 

 servers offer similar statements. The flight is 

 the perfection of aerial navigation. 



The wandering albatross (Diomedea exul- 

 ans) is rarely found north of the equator. He 

 is devoted to the cold and storms of the Antarc- 

 tic, and, if he is led toward the equator, it is 

 only in pursuit of food. Like the gull he is a 

 scavenger first and always, a sea vulture eat- 

 ing refuse. He follows ships for that purpose, 

 has a nose like a buzzard, and either sees or 

 scents ocean carrion, such as a dead whale, at 

 very long distances. His habits hardly make 

 him a romantic bird, and yet he is beloved by 

 the sailor, and has been made the subject of 

 numerous poetic eulogies. And deservedly so. 

 For he is a thing of beauty upon the wing as 

 he rides the wind beside the traveling ship, and 

 in the lonely portions of the ocean where he is 

 seen, his white presence is always a welcome 

 variety in the sea circle. 



Some of the open-sea birds, whose doings are 

 not so well known as those of the albatross, are 

 said to be "strange" or "mysterious"; but 

 the strangeness lies not so much with the birds 



His snilinij 

 qualities. 



Where and 

 how the 

 albatross 

 lives. 



The tropic 

 bird. 



