GREBES AND DIVERS, PENGUINS, TUBE-NOSED BIRDS 45 
of this flight, which is quoted with approval by Professor Newton. It runs as follows: ‘The 
albatross wheels in circles round and round, and for ever round the ship — now far behind, now 
sweeping past in a long, rapid curve, like a perfect skater on an untouched field of ice. 
There is no effort; watch as closely as you will, you rarely or never see a stroke of the 
mighty pinion. The flight is generally near the water, often close to it. You lose sight of 
the bird as he disappears in the hollow between the waves, and catch him again as he rises 
over the crest; but how he rises and whence comes the propelling force is to the eye 
inexplicable: he alters merely the angle at which the wings are inclined; usually they are 
parallel to the water and horizontal; but when he turns to ascend or makes a change in his 
direction, the wings then point at an angle, one to the sky, the other to the water.” 
Professor Hutton, speaking with similar enthusiasm of the wonderful flight, gives us, 
however, another side to the picture. ‘ Suddenly,” he says, ‘“ 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, 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.” 
For the wonderful photographs of the albatross at home we are indebted to the Hon. Walter 
= r ecouauaaal seas " = > } 
hefinge 
By permission of the Hon, Walter Rothschild] 
NESTING ALBATROSSES ON LAYSAN ISLAND 
This colony was of enormous size, and included thousands of birds 
