THE ALBATROSS. ,163 



element, and without ever touching the water with his pinions, 

 rises with the rising billow, and falls with the falling wave. 

 It is truly wonderful how he bids 

 defiance to the fury of the unshac- 

 kled elements, and how quietly he 

 faces the gale. "He seems quite 

 at home," say the sailors; and in- 

 deed this expression is perfectly 

 characteristic of his graceful ease as 

 he hovers over the agitated ocean. 



The albatross exceeds the swan in 

 size, attains a weight of from 121bs. wandermg Aitauosa. 



to 281bs., and extends his wings from 



ten to thirteen feet. His plumage is white and black, harmonising 

 with the wave-crest and the storm-cloud. For weeks and months 

 together he is seen to follow the course of a ship; but, according 

 to Mr. Harvey (Sea Side Book), " the time he can remain on 

 the wing seems to have been much exaggerated, for although, 

 like the gull and the petrel, he is no diving-bird, he swims 

 with the greatest ease; and notwithstanding the enormous 

 length of his pinions, knows well how to rise again into the 

 air. He is indeed unable to take wing from a narrow deck, 

 but when he wishes to rise from the sea, he runs along flapping 

 the waters until he has acquired the necessary impetus, or meets 

 with a wave of a sufficient height, from whose lofty crest he 

 starts as from a rocky pinnacle, and resumes his extensive flight 

 over an immense expanse of ocean." A short-winged species 

 frequents the waters of Kamtschatka and Japan; but the 

 wandering albatross (Z>. exulans) belongs more particularly to- 

 the southern hemisphere, being rarely seen to the north of 30° 

 S. lat., and appearing more frequently as the higher latitudes 

 are approached. The regions of storms — the Cape of Good 

 Hope and Cape Horn — are his favourite resorts, and all travellers 

 know that the southern point of Africa is not far distant as soon as 

 the albatrosses show themselves in larger numbers. These birds 

 are the vultures of the ocean ; their crooked sharp-edged beak 

 is better adapted to lacerate a lifeless prey, than to seize upon 

 the rapid fish as it darts swiftly aloDg below the surface of 

 the waters. From a vast distance they smell the floating carcase 

 of a whale, and soon alight in considerable numbers upon the 



