244 



BACKBONED ANIMALS, 



Southern Ocean. They are powerful fliers, rarely ap 

 proaching the shore except to breed. The wings spread 

 often twelve or fifteen feet ; the bill is extremely power- 

 ful, curved, and acute ; the nostrils form two tubes at the 

 base of the upper mandible. 



The Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans] . The 

 male is snow-white, except the tail, which is dark ; the 

 females are sprinkled with gray, and the young are dark 

 gray. At Marion Island they breed in great numbers, 

 seeming to lose the power of flight during the breeding- 

 season. The nest is made up of tufts of grass and moss, 

 forming a mound one foot and a half in diameter at the 

 top. The one egg is about five inches long, with red 

 specks at the large end, and does not rest in the nest, but 

 is held in a pouch in the skin. 



The Mollymauk (D. culminata) is about the size of a 

 goose. The nest is a cylindrical pile of grass and clay, 

 about fourteen inches in diameter and twelve in height, 

 hollow on top, the edges overhanging so that they form 

 good seats when deserted. The single egg is also held in 

 a pouch. These pillar-like nests are also found in the 

 streets of the penguin cities, the ground beneath them in 

 turn being burrowed by the holes of prions and puffins 

 At Tristan da Cunha, the albatross-nests are found in r- 

 dead crater 8,000 feet above the sea. Their food is gen- 

 erally fish. 



VALUE. The feathers are used for various purposes, the bones of 

 the great albatross as pipe-stems, the skin of the feet as purses and 

 pouches. The oil of the petrel is used for illumination in the Azores, 

 Guano is obtained from their resorts. 



The Gulls (Stercorariida) are found in northern and 

 southern seas. The general color is various shades o^ 

 white and black ; the bill is shorter than the head, com- 

 pressed, the nostrils not forming tubes but slits ; the feet 

 webbed, and adapted for swimming. They are large and 

 buoyant and do not dive, though many plunge completely 



