TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS 



Shearwaters and Petrels 



(Order Tubinares) 



The albatrosses, fulmars, shearwaters, and petrels, that com- 

 prise this order of water-birds, live far out on the ocean, touch- 

 ing land only to nest, and are unsurpassed in powers of flight, 

 owing to the constant exercise of their long, strong, pointed 

 wings. None of our American sportsmen can wail, with Cole- 

 ridge's Ancient Mariner, that he "shot the albatross," for the sev- 

 eral species that comprise its family ( Diomedeidce) confine them- 

 selves to the southern hemisphere. The wandering albatross, the 

 largest of all sea birds, with a wing expanse of from twelve to 

 fourteen feet, and "Mother Carey's chickens," the little petrels 

 that travellers on the north Atlantic frequently see, represent the 

 two extremes of size among the pelagic birds. 



The plumage of birds of this order is compact and oily, 

 to resist water, and differs neither in the sexes, nor at different 

 seasons, so far as is known. Sooty black, grays, and white 

 predominate. The peculiarity of nostrils, tubular in form, and 

 nearly always horizontal, divide the birds into a distinct order. 



Shearwaters and Petrels 



(Family Procellariidce) 



"Mother Carey's Chickens" maybe distinguished by their 

 small size, slight, elegant form, and graceful, airy, flickering flight, 

 as contrasted with the strong, swift flying of the larger shear- 

 waters that often sail with no visible motion of the pinions. 

 Birds of the open sea, feeding on animal substances, particularly 

 the fatty ones, they may sometimes be noticed in flocks, picking 

 up the refuse thrown overboard from the ship's kitchen, on the 

 ocean highway, like the more common herring gull. They seem 

 4 6s 



