Birds inhabiting the Southern Ocean. 281 



tions Albatroses between November and March; and I am^ there- 

 fore, disposed to beheve that the old birds go to sea in March 

 or April, when the young ones are about three months old. 

 Mr. A. Earle, in his ' Narrative of Nine Months' Residence in 

 the Island of Tristan d'Acunha,' as quoted by Gould, says that 

 he saw old Albatroses " stalking about " their young in May ; 

 but as D, exulans can only just manage to get along on land by 

 the help of its wings in a most awkward and ridiculous manner, 

 which no one would think of dignifying by the term " stalking," 

 I am of opinion that he mistook D. melanophrys for this bird. 

 On his way out, Mr. Harris spent three weeks in August at 

 Tristan d'Acunha, Nightingale Island, and Inaccessible Island, 

 but never saw any Albatroses during the whole time. Mr. 

 Harris says that when the old birds return in October he never 

 saw them feed the young ones ; and it is, therefore, evident that 

 they must have some means of obtaining food for themselves. 

 My impression is that the young birds are nocturnal in their 

 habits, and go down to the sea at night, returning to their nests 

 in the morning*. The instinct, or whatever it may be called, 

 which enables the Albatros, after wandering over thousands of 

 miles of trackless ocean, to find its way back to its young one 

 every October is most extraordinary. Mr. Harris says that he 

 feels quite certain that the same birds visit their old nests, and 

 use them again for the next broods. In this case the landmarks 

 which may guide the Swallow in its migrations are entirely 

 wanting ; and as the birds spread on all sides from their breed- 

 ing-places, and, doubtless, sometimes traverse the whole globe, 

 the position of the sun, which is the only natural guide that 

 man possesses, cannot avail them anything. 



The flight of the Albatros is truly majestic, as with out- 

 stretched, motionless wings he sails over the surface of the sea ; 

 now rising high in the air ; now with a bold sweep, and wings 



* Mr. Harris does not agree to this. In a letter to me, dated H.M.S. 

 ' Medusa/ 19th March, 1865, he says that "the fact that they would stand 

 to exercise their wings, shows that they had not yet got the proper use 

 of them "; also that he " never saw them upon the wing until the return 

 of the old ones " ; and further, that the situations that some of them 

 occupied were such as to make it " impossible for them to get to the 

 water except by flight." 



