133 



demand for nourishment diminishes in the same proportion. Now, the young Albatros continues actively 

 alive ! Again, animals which hibernate burrow into the warm earth, or are otherwise snugly ensconced. The 

 long winter through the young Albatros, sitting in an open nest on a bleak hillside, is exposed to the terrific 

 violence of an almost unbroken succession of the fiercest gales that ever rushed out of the great void of an 

 ocean ! Lastly, hibernates are lean and emaciated when they emerge in the spring. The young Albatros, 

 after its fast of four months, is lively and in good condition ! 



That a tender nestling should be able, under such adverse circumstances, not only to exist but to thrive 

 and to become a lusty fledgling is matter enough to excite our astonishment ; but what perhaps is more 

 wonderful still is that the parent birds should thus desert their young. It cannot be want of food that takes 

 them away, for the waters which wash their island home are teeming with oceanic mollusca and small crusta- 

 ceans — their natural food. Neither can their departure be ascribed to an impatience of cold, for the great 

 ocean solitude to which they repair is, at this time of the year, the most bleak and wintry stretch of water 

 upon our globe. We are able, in a measure, to understand the reason why birds migrate ; but what is the 

 motive which prompts the Albatros to wander — an impulse so strong that it conquers the fondest tie on earth, 

 the attachment of a parent to its offspring? No one knows. It is an unfathomable mystery. 



When, directed by some secret instinct which defies our understanding, the old birds return over the path- 

 less deep to their far-away desolate home, each pair goes at once to the old nest. After a little fondling of the 

 young one — which meanwhile has gone no further from its nursery than to stand immediately beyond the 

 margin of the encircling drain to exercise its growing wings — they unceremoniously bundle it out and proceed 

 to repair the structure. 



The fledgling by this time is dark-slaty grey with, perhaps, little tufts of down still adhering in places to 

 the plumage. But it is still far from being able to fly. Its babyhood is long, and it remains for some months 

 yet in the immediate vicinity of the nest, evincing in many pretty ways its fondness for its truant parents. 

 As time progresses it takes short trips to sea ; but not until the following year does it fly from the cradle 

 of its infancy. Then, in company with its parents, it launches into space and traverses the world. 



I have omitted Mr. Buckland's description of the conical nest, because he has mistaken the 

 nest of the Mollymawk for that of the true Albatros. 



Much has been written, from time to time, about the mechanical principles involved in 

 the flight of the Albatros (see vol. ii., pp. 193-195), one of the chief contributors being Captain 

 F. W. Hutton, F.B.S., now Director of the Canterbury Museum. His last notes on this subject 

 are to be found in ' The Ibis ' for January, 1903, accompanied by some interesting diagrams 

 which, by his permission, I reproduce, with the following extracts from his paper : — 



In the Pliocene period Albatroses inhabited the North Atlantic Ocean ; but at the present time they are 

 practically limited to the North Pacific, as far south as 20° N., the coast of Peru, and the Southern Ocean 

 between 30° S. and 60° S. Several are dark in colour when they are young, and get whiter as they grow old ; 

 and this points to the probability of D. nigripes, of the North Pacific, which remains dark throughout life, 

 being nearer to the prototype Albatros than any other species now living. . . . 



One of the most peculiar and characteristic habits of the Albatroses— as well as of all the larger Petrels — 

 is their so-called ' sailing ' method of flight, which enables the birds to keep on the wing all day with very 

 little exertion. Of course, it is not true sailing, but some word is wanted to distinguish it from the soaring of 

 Vultures, Pelicans, and other birds. For the flight of the Petrels is performed near the surface of the sea, 

 and the birds make irregular curves with such sharp turns that their outstretched wings are, when turning, in 

 an almost perpendicular position (see fig. 1). Vultures, when soaring, ascend to a considerable height, and then 

 whirl round and round in great circles, always keeping their wings horizontal. 



Sailing flight depends, of course, upon the principle of the inclined plane. The bird acquires momentum 

 by flapping its wings, and then, holding them extended and motionless, waits until its momentum is nearly 

 exhausted, when it once more propels itself forward as before. In the case of the Sooty Albatros, the interval 

 may, under favourable conditions, be about half an hour, and the difficulty is to explain why the friction of 

 the air does not sooner bring the bird to a standstill. It was pointed out in 1889 by Mr. A. G. Baines * that 



* < Nature,' vol. xi., p. 9 ; and Lord Bayleigh, I. c, p. 34. 



