283 Capt. F. W. Hutton on some of the 



inclined at an angle with tlie horizon, descending until the tip 

 of the lower one all but touches the crests of the waves as he 

 skims over them. Suddenly he sees something floating on the 

 water and prepares to alight ; but how changed he now is from 

 the noble bird but a moment before all grace and symmetry. 

 He raises his wings, his head goes back, and his back goes in ; 

 down drop two enormous webbed feet straddled out to their full 

 extent, and with a hoarse croak, between the cry of a Raven and 

 that of a sheep, he falls "souse" into the water. Here he is at home 

 again, bi'easting the waves like a cork. Presently he stretches 

 out his neck, and with great exertion of his wings runs along 

 the top of the water for seventy or eighty yards, until, at last, 

 having got sufficient impetus, he tucks up his legs, and is once 

 more fairly launched in the air. It is, I presume, this necessity 

 of running along the top of the water before he is able to ascend 

 from it, which has given rise to the fable — as I think I may call 

 it, although still quoted by some of the best naturalists — of the 

 Albatros being able to walk on the surface of the water with hardly 

 any assistance from its wings, and that the noise of its tread may 

 be heard at a great distance, which originated with Captain Wed- 

 dell in his ' Voyage towards the South Pole in 1822-24.'' 



I have never seen this bird dive. When caught and placed 

 on deck, they are unable to stand or rise from it unless a strong 

 wind is blowing, but lie almost helpless on their breasts. After 

 they have been on board a few minutes they generally, but not 

 always, throw up a large quantity of oil. I have sometimes 

 sailed past an Albatros sitting on the water, and it has^ot got 

 up to join the other birds flying round the ship, but remained 

 on the water until out of sight — a thing I have never observed 

 in any other of the Petrels. I have not seen NuttalPs original 

 account of this bird ; but, as quoted by Dr. Bree, in his ' Birds 

 of Europe,^ it seems nearly as full of errors as words. He has 

 evidently confounded the North Pacific species, D. brachyura, 

 with D. exulans, although they are quite distinct*. 



* This confusion seems to have been made by most of the writers on 

 North American ornithology. Mr. Lawrence, however, has clearly dis- 

 tinguished the two species (Baird's B. N. Am. p. 821). Diomedea exulans 

 has probably never occurred on the coast of the United States. — Ed. 



