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Order — Tubinares. Tube-nosed Swimmers 
General Description. Tireless fliers of the deep sea, of various sizes from the large 
Albatross to the small Petrel. Usually dull and evenly coloured birds, but some strikingly 
black and white. 
Distinctions. Nostrils are encased in tubes on fop or on sides of the bill proper (Figures 
103-107). 
Field Marks . General flight habits and coloration . 
Familiarity with the various species is necessary to recognize members of the order. 
Nesting. On the ground or in burrows in out-of-the-way localities, often on rocky 
islets far out at sea to which they find their way in some mysterious manner that we can- 
not explain. 
Distribution. As a family, they are birds of the southern hemisphere, for it iB there 
that they reach their fullest development in numbers of individuals and species. How- 
ever, some inhabit the north far into the Arctics. 
The Tube-nosed Swimmers are essentially marine, using the land 
only for breeding purposes. The ocean is their home and its lonely waste 
is sufficient for all their needs except that of rearing their young. They, 
therefore, as a class, rarely come into shallow water and are most commonly 
seen by the deep-water sailor, the offshore fisherman, or the ocean voyager. 
There are two families of the order: the Albatrosses, Diomedeidae; and the 
Fulmars, Shearwaters, and Petrels, Hydrobatidae; that are here called for 
convenience the Greater and Lesser Tube-nosed Swimmers owing to their 
comparative sizes. 
Economic Status. Owing to their pelagic habitat they are of little if 
any known economic interest. 
FAMILY — DIOMEDEIDAE. THE GREATER TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS. 
ALBATROSSES 
General Description. Tube-nosed Swimmers {See previous description) 30 to 36 inches 
long with an extent of 10 feet or more. Nostrils in independent tubes, one on each side 
of the culmen and not united or rising above it as in next family (Figures 103, 104, com- 
pare with 105-107). 
Distinctions. Decidedly larger than any of the Lesser Tube-noses. Bill built up of 
large plates with well-defined divisions. Nostrils as above. 
Field Marks. Great size and immensely long wings. 
Nesting. On the ground, usually in large communities on lonely oceanic islands. 
Distribution, The family is most characteristic of the southern hemisphere but 
wanders all over the deep seas. 
The Albatrosses are true pelagics and seldom come to land except to 
nest. Even along our outer seashores they are rarely seen, as they prefer 
the wide expanse of the trackless deep rather than coastal waters. The 
deep-sea fisherman sees them far out from land and the transoceanic 
traveller glimpses them in mid-ocean. Very rarely is one taken along the 
shores and there are few birds about which we know less. The 
untiring flight of the Albatross is proverbial. Sailing for hours in the 
wind, seemingly without apparent motion of wing or expenditure of exertion, 
they are the wonder and admiration of aviators. The manner in which 
they find their way in proper season, without guide or landmark, to the small 
specks of ocean islands across the trackless water, is truly marvellous and 
suggests the possession of special powers of orientation. The mystery and 
interest that surround these birds is well expressed in Coleridge’s poem 
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