280 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Voracious disposition. 



mote from land, so they are often seen, as it 

 should seem, sleeping in the air. At night, when 

 they are pressed by slumber, they rise into the 

 clouds as high as they can ; there putting their 

 head under one wing, they beat the air with the 

 other, and seem to take their ease. After a time, 

 however, the weight of their bodies, only thus 

 half supported, brings them down ; and they are 

 seen descending with a pretty rapid motion, to 

 the surface of the sea. Upon this they again 

 put forth their efforts to rise; and thus alter- 

 nately ascend and descend at their ease. But it 

 sometimes happens, that, in their slumbering 

 flights, they are off their guard, and fall upon, 

 deck, when they are taken." 



Be this account true or false, it is certain, that 

 few birds float upon the air with more ease than 

 the albatross, or support themselves a longer time 

 in that element. They seem never to feel the 

 excesses of fatigue; but night and day upon the 

 wing are always prowling, yet always emaciated 

 and hungry. 



Though this bird is of the most voracious dis- 

 position, and thus tyrannical in its nature, yet he 

 is also a proof that there are some associates 

 which even tyrants themselves form, to which 

 they are induced either by caprice or necessity. 

 The albatross seems to have a peculiar affection 

 fot the penguin, and a pleasure in its society. 

 They are always seen to chuse the same place* 

 of breeding some distant uninhabited island, 

 where the ground slants to the sea, as the pen- 



