HUTTON — ON THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 231 



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 what- 

 ever it may be called, which enables the Albatross, 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 nest, and use it 

 again for the next brood. In this case the landmarks, which might 

 guide the swallow in its migrations, are entirely wanting ; and as the 

 birds spread on all sides from their breeding 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 Albatross is truly majestic, as with outstretched mo- 

 tionless wings he sails over the surface of the sea ; now rising high in the 

 air ; now with a bold sweep, and wings inclined at an angle with the 

 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 he prepares to alight ; but how changed he 

 now is from the noble bird but a moment before all grace and s) r mmetry ! 

 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 a raven and a sheep, he falls souse into 

 the water. Here he is at home again, breasting 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 Albatross 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 Weddell 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 to 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 sometime sailed past 



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

 March 19, 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 occu- 

 pied by some of them were such as to make it " impossible for them to get to the water 

 except by flight." 



