The Short-tailed Albatross 



no more fertile fields for such study than those afforded by several of the 

 gregarious species of these ocean wanderers — can form little conception of 

 the average desolation of the oceanic wastes. Dr. T. W. Richards, an 

 experienced and zealous observer, gave us the most adequate expression 

 of it when he testified 1 that during a voyage of 12,000 miles, from San 

 Francisco to Yokohama via Honolulu and Melbourne, with the exception 

 of the waters adjacent to Australia, where these birds abound, he saw 

 not over one hundred pelagic birds all told, — one bird every hundred 

 miles! Yet in all probability ten million albatrosses and a hundred mil- 

 lion shearwaters and a billion petrels were at that very time scouring the 

 seven seas. It takes a good many sea-birds to go around if all seafaring 

 men are to have a comforting glimpse of one now and then. 



Truth to tell, the Tubinares are more prevalent in those latitudes of 

 which the poet testified when he said : 



"And a good south wind sprung up behind." 

 Wind is a prime requisite of Diomedeine happiness, and it is amid the 

 roaring Forties of the Antarctic seas that these birds appear to best ad- 

 vantage. Every Albatross has, of course, adequate means of propulsion, 

 a virtual "auxiliary engine," capable of vibrating the bird's enormous 

 "planes," to cover a flaw in the wind, or to execute a quick movement; 

 but literal sailing, or gliding upon the wind, without propulsion, is its ordi- 

 nary method. The stouter the gale the more certain the bird's advance 

 against it, for nature has taught the bird a subtle alchemy whereby it can 

 resolve the forces of the wind so that the upthrust plus gravity much more 

 than balances the resistance of the onsweep, to the end that the bird rides 

 splendidly against the wind without other effort than that of holding the 

 wings at a certain angle. This claim was loudly scouted once, but more 

 attentive observation has abundantly confirmed it. It is the principle 

 of stream lining, and though no aeronautical engineer claims to have 

 mastered it in practice, the bird's secrets are being endangered. 

 "And round and round it flew." 



Great circles of flight not only assist the Albatross in covering more 

 "ground," but apparently enable it to utilize with least effort the pressure 

 of the wind. For lack of objects of comparison, one finds it difficult to 

 estimate the velocity attained by these speed-kings, yet they will weave 

 to and fro across the wake of a vessel, or throw circles around it, which 

 cast shame upon the mightiest efforts of men, — and all without flapping 

 a wing. It is in making a sharp turn that the professional skill of the 

 Albatross appears to best advantage. Every one knows by now that 

 in making a turn the aviator tilts, or "banks," his machine in the direc- 



1 The Condor, Vol. XL, Jan., 1909, p. 5. 

 I990 



