BIRDS. 371 



Such are the principal traits in this bird's figure : but these 

 lead us a very sliort way in its liistory; and our naturalists have 

 thought fit to say nothing more. However, I am apt to believe 

 this bird to be the same with that described by Wicquefort, under 

 tiie title of the Alcatraz ; its size, its colours, and its prey, incline 

 me to think so. He describes it as a kind of great gull, as large 

 in the body as a goose, of a brown colour, with a long bill, and 

 living upon fish, of which they kill great numbers. 



This bird is an inhabitant of the tropical climates, and also 

 beyond them as far as the Straits of Magellan in the South 

 Seas. It is one of the most fierce and formidable of the aqua- 

 cic tribe, not only living upon fish, but also such small water- 

 fowl as it can take by surprise. It preys, as all the gull kind 

 do, upon the wing ; and chiefly pursues the flying-fish, thu-t are 

 forced from the sea by the dolphins. The ocean in that part of 

 the world presents a very different appearance from the seas 

 with which we are surrounded. In our seas we see nothing but 

 a dreary expanse, ruffled by winds, and seeming forsaken by 

 every class of animated nature. But the tropical seas, and the 

 distant southern latitudes beyond them, are all alive with birds 

 and fishes, pursuing and pursued. Every various species of the 

 gull-kind are there seen hovering on the wing, at a thousand 

 miles distance from the shore. The flying fish are every mo- 

 ment rising to escape from their pursuers of the deep, only to 

 encounter equal dangers in the air. Just as they rise the dol- 

 phin is seen to dart after them, but generally in vain ; the gull 

 has more frequent success, and often takes them at their rise ; 

 while the albatross pursues the gull, and obliges it to relincpiish 

 its prey; so that the whole horizon presents but one living pic- 

 ture of rapacity and evasion. 



So much is certain ; but how far we are to credit Wicquefort, 

 in what he adds concerning this bird, the reader is left to deter- 

 mine. " As these birds, except when they breed, live entirely 

 remote from land, so they are often seen, as it should seem, 

 sleeping in the air. At night, when they are pressed by sliun- 

 ber, they rise into the clouds as high as they can; there, putting 

 their head under one wing, they beat the air with the other, and 

 seem to take their ease. After a time, however, the weight of 

 their bodies, only thus half supported, brings them down ; and 

 they are seen descending, with a inttty rapid motion, to the bur- 



