860 
BIRD-LIFE. 
Petrel, in fact,—with a powerful body, short thick neck, 
large head, extraordinarily long narrow wings, short forked 
tail, and a very sharp trenchant beak, the nostrils of which 
terminate in short horny tubes; the feet are three-toed, 
strongly webbed, and the plumage very close and thick. 
The colour of the Albatross is white, with the exception 
of the black pinions; that of the young birds is speckled 
with brown, interspersed with curvilinear streaks on a 
light ground. The beak is carnation-red, yellow at the 
tip; the feet are reddish; and the eyes brown, surrounded 
with a ring of pale green. The total length of the bird 
is four feet, and its breadth across the wings ten feet. 
Every sailor knows that when Albatrosses appear in 
large numbers the Cape of Good Hope is not far distant. 
Except during the period of the breeding season they are 
only met with in mid-ocean, and then rarely otherwise 
than on the wing. A definite limit cannot be assigned to 
the localities inhabited by this bird, for it is seen in 
every sea, though preferring the regions lying between 80° 
and 60° south latitude; and that zone must be regarded 
as its true home. Gould, during his voyage round the 
world, met with this bird everywhere within the above- 
named belt, though it occurred most frequently near the 
Cape of Good Hope, the Island of St. Paul, and Yan 
Diemen’s Land. 
A careful naturalist, to whom we are much indebted 
for a great deal of information on the subject of sea-birds, 
says, that the powers of flight possessed by the Albatross 
are greater than those of any other bird that has come 
under his observation. Though the Albatross occasionally 
alights on the surface of the water in fine weather, still 
it is almost always seen on the wing, and glides just as 
easily over the glassy bosom of the ocean during a calm, 
