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tross ; and the red axes, such as P Q and L M, represent the axes found 

 by me by successive approximations, each coming nearer and nearer to the 

 real axis. I chose the albatross for the following reason. Just as I be- 

 lieve the tiger to be the most worthy object of study in considering the 

 question of the arrangement of the limbs of quadrupeds, from its great 

 strength and size and activity, so I believe the albatross to be the most 

 wonderful of all birds with which we are acquainted, and to be worthy 

 of study. Its habits have been described by Portuguese navigators ; 

 and they have been described by Coleridge in the beautiful poem The 

 Ancient Mariner. The albatross possesses very remarkable peculiari- 

 ties. He seldom or never flaps his wing, but his soaring power in the 

 air is prodigious. When he has once attained a certain height, he is so 

 beautifully constructed that he is able to keep that height, or at least to 

 lose less of it than any other known bird. The only other bird in the 

 world to compare for a moment with the albatross in the power of 

 soaring is the condor vulture. I have here a drawing of the wing of 

 the condor vulture and the wing of the albatross. Any one looking at 

 the diagram will see that, if I took a pair of shears and cut off the 

 white feathers from the wing of the vulture, I should reduce it to the 

 wing of the albatross. This was my main reason for choosing the 

 wing of the albatross as a type of the perfection of flying. I studied 

 the wings of the eagle, the hawk, the vulture, and other birds ; and I 

 found there was a sort of type underlying them which corresponded 

 with the wing of the albatross. I can demonstrate, but will not 

 trouble you with the demonstration now, that the albatross wing con- 

 tains all the conditions for merely soaring. It sleeps upon the water 

 at night ; it feeds upon small floating molluscs and crustaceans which it 

 finds in the sea, or gladly accepts from passing sailors pieces of biscuit 

 offered from the ships. When morning comes, the albatross rises slowly 

 and laboriously from the water. He is described by the ancient Portuguese 

 sailors as running upon the sea, because he rises so slowly in the air that 

 for nearly half a mile he attempts to rise from the surface, and his feet 

 touch the waves. Slowly and painfully our poor bird rises to a height 

 of about a thousand feet, and he seems content with this thousand feet ; 

 he has the power of losing as little of it as any known bird. If a ship 

 be in sight, the albatross follows the ship; but, if no ship be in sight, he 

 is cunning enough to look out for another albatross that sees a ship. If 

 he sees another albatross at a distance moving in a particular direction, 

 he knows that it sees a ship, or sees an albatross that sees an albatross 

 that sees a ship ; and so, before ten o'clock in the morning, the ship is 

 surrounded with flying albatrosses, soaring most gracefully in the air. 

 Woe betide the sailor that shoots an albatross ! I was five years in ob- 

 taining this creature for dissection. Through Mr. Moore, the curator 

 of the Museum in Liverpool, I was put in communication with a 



