11.0 Observations on the Albatross. [Feb. 



Sailors, like landsmen, who form opinions of the operations of 

 nature, from mere casual and superficial observation, "without conde- 

 scending to look into causes and effects, must of course very often 

 come to erroneous and ridiculous conclusions. Witness the following 

 anecdote which occurred to me : 



The boatswain told one of the passengers that the stormy petrels, or 

 Mother Cary's Chickens, make no nest, but lay two white eggs on 

 the water, and then take them under their wings to hatch them ; 

 during this time the male bird supplies the female with food ! 



This fable is, I believe, current among the lower class of seamen. 



On telling this story, however, the chief officer laughed very 

 heartily, and cautioned me not to receive as gospel every " yarn the 

 boatswain chose to spin ;" but lo ! in a very few minutes, he told 

 me as truth, a story which appeared to me fully as marvellous as the 

 other : He said, that in some of the islands to the southward, and 

 about Cape Horn, there is a bird called the *' King Penguin," which 

 had a pouch between its legs, into which, it puts its egg, (for the Pen- 

 guin only lays one,) as soon as laid ; in this pouch the egg is kept for 

 24 hours, during which time the female remains on shore, but at the 

 expiration of that time, the male bird, who is also furnished with a 

 similar pouch, returns from his fishing excursions, and relieves the 

 female by receiving the egg into his custody for the next 24 hours. 

 They take a very long time to shift this egg from one pouch to the 

 other, and although there are several species of Penguin on those 

 islands none of them are furnished with a " patent egg-boiler," save his 

 majesty the King Penguin of the Southern Isles !! 



He added, that the bird may be induced to drop the egg, although 

 reluctantly, by running a stick between its legs !! 



Having offered these remai-ks, I shall proceed in my next, to give 

 you an extract from my Journal, kept on the voyage, in which I noted 

 down every circumstance connected with Natural History, and which 

 being written not from memory, but from facts at the moment occur- 

 ring, may perhaps be considered worthy of perusal. 



Since writing the above, I have had an opportunity of perusing 

 Geiffith's Translation of Cuvier, and find, that the Booby is stated to 

 be the " Pelecanus Sula;" the plumage is thus described : " Belly and 

 vent, all white, when young, all brown !" this is rather a meagre 

 description, but nevertheless proves, that the Booby is not an Alba- 

 tross, as supposed by the writer in Loudon's Nat. Hist. 



