WATER BIRDS. 



Fulmar Petrel. 



Red Phalarope. 



The Fulmar Petrel dwells nearly all the year upon the arctic seas. Congregating there amid the float- 

 ing ice, they seek the resorts of the whale, and other oil-bearing animals and feast on such fragments of 

 their carcasses, as they may fall in with. The whale ships they regularly follow, and when the captured 

 whale is cut up, a thousand or more of these birds often muster and wrangle for the oily morsels floating 

 around. The Petrel is found in some of the islands off Northern Scotland. These islanders use the oil 

 extracted from it for culinary and medicinal purposes. Its flesh, too, is eaten by the Greenlanders, while 

 its down is considered very valuable. 



The Red Phalarope inhabits the whole arctic circle during summer, and there breeds, laying four eggs 

 of an oil-green color, crowded with irregular spots of dark umber-brown. The fledglings take wing in July 

 or early August, and with their parents start in September, for their tropical winter quarters- The}' are rarely 

 seen in the United States, and as seldom seen in England or Germany. They feed chiefly on certain winter 

 insects in the salt-waters frequented by them. 



The Wandering Albatross is from three to four feet long and from ten to seventeen across the wings. 

 Except during the short breeding season, they are perpetual wanderers, apparently passing from one ex- 

 tremity of the globe to another. It preys also on the flying-fish and, this failing, on the abundant mol- 

 luscous animals of the middle seas. Their voracity is enormous, and their stupidity after gorging is such 



that unresistingly they suffer themselves to be knocked on 

 the head. They are taken in various modes by the Karn- 

 schatdales for the sake of their intestines, which are used 

 as bladders to float the buoys of their fishing nets. 



