WANDERING- ALBATROSS". ^ 507 



A^roin each continent to their breedin-g-places in the fouthern hemi- 

 fphere, which they may arrive at by the leafon of fummer in that 

 adverfe part of the globe. 



They feek the northern fliores, in purfuit of thevaft fhoals of fal- Mannerj,. 

 men which frequent thofe diftant places. They are the moft vora- 

 cious of birds ; and will fo fill themfelves with fifh, that fometimes 

 a large one will hang half out of their mouths till thofe in their 

 flomach are digefted. They will be at times fo loaden with food 

 as to become incapable of flyingj and even fo ftupified, a-s to be 

 readily hunted down by boats, or transfixed in the v/ater by darts : 

 neither can they arife till they have vomited up their prey, which, 

 they ftrive to do with all their might. 



The Kamlfcbaikans are very folicitous about the capture ofthefe Caituss. 

 birds, not fo much for the fake of their flefh (which is very tough 

 and dry, and never eaten unlefs hunger compels) but on account of 

 the inteftines, which they blow into bladders, in order to form 

 floats for their nets. They angle for the Albatrofles as they do for 

 the fcaly race, baiting with a whole fifh, a large hook fixed to a long 

 cord. This they fling into the water, when there is an inflant con- 

 teft among thefe greedy birds, which fliall firfl lay hold of it *. 



They have only the veftige of a tongue 5 which is one of the cha- 

 rafters of the Gannet, Corvorants, and other voracious birds. Their 

 voice, like that of the Pel'eean, refembles the braying of an afs. 



The voyage which thefe birds undertake, from perhaps almoft the Misjiakons*, 

 extremity of the fouthern hemifphere to that of the northern, urged by 

 infl"in<5l, to attend the migration of certain fifhes, is very arhazing. 

 They ar^i indeed, feen in Jpril and May off the Cape of Good Hopef, 

 fometimes foaring in the air with the gentle- motion of a Kite, at a 

 fl:upendous height j at others, nearer the water, watching the mo- 

 tions of the Flying Fifh, which they catch- while thofe miferable be- 

 ings fpring out of their element to fliun the jaws of the Coryphenes,. 



* Jiift. Kamt/chatka, Engl, edit. 155. -^ Damfier, 1. 531. — OJlitck, i. 109. 



3,T a I ha?7-e 



