THE LIVING WORLD. 
40 
The Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans ) is familiar alike to trav¬ 
eller and reader, but even Coleridge’s study of the weird, in his matchless 
“Ancient Mariner,” 
does not discuss the 
natural history of the 
bird, and from sailors 
one learns only the 
superstitions, which 
are “ as thick as leaves 
in Vallambrosa.” It 
is the largest of swim¬ 
ming birds, as it very 
frequently has twelve 
or fourteen-feet stretch 
of wing. Its white 
coloring has the ap¬ 
pearance of crested 
waves, and is broken 
only by the pink hue 
of its bill, the green 
orbit of the eye, the 
flesh-color tint of the 
legs, and the tracery 
of black on the edge of its wings, and on the shorter feathers of the back and 
ALBATROSS AND GOLDEN DIVERS. 
tail. As the sailor’s “home is on the ocean wave,” so that of the albatross 
is in mid-air, and its graceful flight is not affected by dead calm or the most 
27 
