The Black-footed Albatross 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nests: In colonies; single egg laid 

 on bare sand or rock. Egg: White; often spotted or stained at the larger end with 

 dull rufous (chestnut or russet). Av. size, 111x68.1 (4.37x2.68) (Richards); index 

 61.3. Season: November. 



Occurrence in California. — Found irregularly upon the open ocean and 

 irrespective of season along the entire coast. Specimen taken on Humboldt Bay in 

 the summer of 1917 by C. I. Clay. 



Authorities. — Vigors {Diomedea fuliginosa), Zool. Voy. "Blossom," 1839, 

 p. 39 (Monterey); Godman, Monogr. Petrels, pt. v., 1910, p. 332, pis. 94, 95; Howell, 

 Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 12, 1917, p. 30 (status off coast s. Calif.) ; Loomis, Proc. Calif. 

 Acad. Sci., ser. 4, vol. 2, pt. 2, no. 12, 1918, p. 71 (crit.; syst.); Bent, U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 Bull. no. 121, 1922, p. 1, pis. (life hist.; desc. nest and eggs, etc.). 



THE SOLACE of the ocean voyager — at least after novels and 

 shuffle-board have lost their charm — is the sight of the Gooneys. These 

 tireless watchers of the deep adopt our ship, almost without our knowing 

 it, some thirty miles from shore, where the gulls abandon her to her 

 wilful course across the vast Pacific. For the bare hope of refuse from 

 the cook's galley, they will follow the ship for hours and days together, 

 but they count it no hardship. It is sport, rather. Instead of plodding 

 wearily in the wake, they throw great circles of flight about the belea- 

 guered vessel, and seem thus in sheer wantonness to mock the labor of 

 steam. Excelled in powers of flight by none, and rivalled only by the 

 Man-o'-war-bird {Fregata minor palmer stoni, of the Pacific), the Alba- 

 tross is at once the marvel and the despair of human attainment; attain- 

 ment not merely by way of imitation — that were impossible — but in the 

 matter of understanding. How does he do it? Apparently by a mere 

 effort of will, certainly without visible propulsion, the bird skims low over 

 the water, eluding with consummate skill the unevenly-crested waves, or 

 else shoots aloft without a stroke upon those rigidly outstretched pinions. 



Yet in spite of the fact that all of Ocean's untrammeled wastes are 

 before him, and that abundant viands, fish and squids and sea-faring 

 crustaceans, await his pleasure, this rover is singularly at our mercy. 

 The tragedy of the Ancient Mariner was first of all a tragedy of bird-life. 

 The confidence of an Albatross was wantonly betrayed and all the mis- 

 fortune followed — in the story. In point of fact the betrayal, though 

 not the retribution, has been a thousand times repeated. On certain 

 ships it is considered great sport to shoot "Mollymawks"; and pump 

 guns are far more destructive than crossbows. 



But that is not the worst. Having the sea before him, the Albatross 

 could, of course, let us alone if we were unworthy of confidence; but we 

 have discovered his breeding haunts upon certain islands of the mid- 

 Pacific. Here is what happened in one instance in the case of a related 

 species, the Laysan Albatross, Diomedea immutabilis. It was on Marcus 



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