WANDERING ALBATROSS. 



93 



flies so close to the wind as to keep within two points of the wind, 

 and appears almost to fly against it." 



In the Australasian seas Dr. Bennett says the squid or cuttle-fish 

 forms their principal food, after feeding upon which they would 

 return to the ship, and hover about it apparently without any mus- 

 cular exertion, steering themselves by the tail and wings. Nature 

 has been prodigal in her gifts to this remarkable bird. Under the 

 feathers there is a quantity of fine down, which protects them from 

 the cold; and the extent and size of air-cells in their bones gives 

 them that buoyancy and lightness which enables them to live almost 

 always on the sea and on the wing. 



In the twelfth volume of the "Linnean Transactions," Captain 

 Carmichael, in his "Description of the Island of Tristran du Cunha," 

 has an account of the nesting of this species. It gives itself no 

 trouble in constructing a nest, "merely choosing a dry spot of ground, 

 and producing a slight concavity to prevent the egg from rolling 

 out of its place. The egg is white, very large, and of a very jjeculiar 

 shape, being uncommonly long in proportion to its diameter, and 



