Albatross

“ Of all the interesting objects which present themselves to the eye of the voyager in the southern hemisphere, the albatross is among the most noteworthy. Apart from its relieving the monotony of the watery expanse, this bird, by its extraordinary characteristics, seldom fails of exciting a lively degree of astonishment in the spectator—for what can be thought of a bird which apparently requires neither rest nor sleep? ”

“ The common albatross is the Diomedea exulans of naturalists. Its plumage, except a few of the wing feathers, is white; its long, hard beak, which Is very powerful, is of a pale yellow colour; and its short, webbed feet are flesh coloured. It is frequently met with in the Southern Ocean. The species mentioned in the text is the black-beaked albatross, which frequents the India waters. The albatross Is a formidable enemy to the sailor, for if one falls overboard, he will assuredly fall a victim to this powerful bird, unless rescued immediately by his comrades. ”

“ According to J. Gould the latter is the commonest species of albatross inhabiting the Southern Ocean, and its gregarious habits and familiar disposition make it well known to every voyager to or from Australia, for it is equally common in the Atlantic as well as the Pacific. The back, wings and tail are of a blackish-grey, but all the rest of the plumage is white, except a dusky superciliary streak, whence its name of black-browed albatross, as also its scientific epithet, are taken. The bill of the adult is of an ochreous-yellow, while that of the young is dark. ”

“ This species varies much in size, and still more in colour and plumage, which is more or less mixed with grey or brown, and sometimes even entirely white; this depends doubtless on the season, the sex, and the age.
2nd. The epauletted albatross, Diomedea epomophera, which is smaller than the common albatross. His head, neck, body, back, and rump are snowy white, while the feathers of his wings are perfectly black, with the exception of a large white lozenge-shaped spot on each; the beak is yellowish. Some naturalists believe these to be only the young of the ordinary kind. ”

“ It was a very beautiful sight; the sheep and lambs were still fast asleep on the green hills, and 15 the sea-birds were asleep in long rows upon the ledges of the cliffs, with their heads under their wings.
“Are those young fairies awake yet?” asked the albatross.
“As sound asleep as ever,” answered Jack; “but, Albatross, is not that the sea which lies under us? You are a sea-bird, I know, but I am not a sea boy, and I cannot live in the water.” ”

“ The young are at first clothed in a pure white down, which gives place to the dark-brown colouring.' The 'cautious albatross,' as its name indicates, is very shy, seldom approaches the land, and is not easily captured: the yellow-billed species, when in pursuit of its prey, will dive and swim for several yards under water. ”

“ The swallow, tiny and inconsiderable as it may appear, can traverse 1000 miles at a single journey; and the albatross, despising compass and landmark, trusts himself boldly for weeks together to the mercy or fury of the mighty ocean. ”

“ From the length of his wings, the albatross has some little trouble in raising himself from the surface of the water, where he often floats at rest. He has to skim along half flying and half running for some distance, until his wings are clear of the water; then he soars away, seldom flapping his wings, but rising, sinking, and floating through the air, as if kept up by some internal power. ”

“ It costs him far less exertion to rise from the sea for flight than the unwieldy paddling run along the surface necessary to give sufficient impetus for raising the huge albatross, and consequently his alightings are much more frequent. But he is undoubtedly a beautiful bird, suffering only by comparison with the most splendid of all sea-fowl. A brown kind of albatross, with a dirty white beak, is very much in evidence south of 20° S., dropping continually into the turbulence of a ship’s wake, and diving to considerable depths after scraps. ”

“ Even a poor weak Sea-mew will attack an Albatross, the cowardly giant finding no better means of getting rid of his enemy than by plunging into the water. Although they are most gluttonous in taste, they prefer flight to contending for their food. This consists of marine animals, Molluscs, and the spawn of Fish. When they are filled to repletion, and the prey which they have seized is too large to swallow whole, they may be seen with part of it hanging outside their bill, until the first half is digested. Thus embarrassed, the Albatross has only one mode of escape if it happens to be pursued ”

“ "God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!— Why look'st thou so?"—With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS.
PART THE SECOND. ”

“ The bill of an albatross is a heavy and powerful structure, four inches long or more, and strongly hooked at the tip. The covering consists of several distinct plates of horn. The plumage of the body is very thick and compact, and well adapted to withstand not only water but cold. Experiment has shown that an albatross can withstand a temperature far below freezing for weeks at a time, even when confined, so that active movement is impossible. The tail is comparatively short and more or less rounded, but the wings are exceedingly long and pointed. ”

“ It is a common belief among seamen that nobody ever succeeded in bringing an albatross alive to the Northern Hemisphere.
Sometimes off the coast of Africa hundreds of swallows that have lost their way in a fog alight on a ship's rigging, exhausted. Sometimes dozens of storks do. They never rise again. There is no suitable food on board for them. It is pitiful to see them waste away and drop dead on deck or into the sea. There is no help for it. They die a seaman's death, like sailors adrift without food or water. ”

“ She died at Florence in 1824, where she was buried at the Church of Sta Croce, by the side of Alfieri, whom she is supposed to have married secretly.
Alba′ta, a name sometimes given to German silver.
Wandering Albatross (Diomēdea exŭlans)
Al′batross, a large marine swimming bird of several species, of which the wandering albatross (Diomedēa exŭlans) is the best known. The bill is straight and strong, the upper mandible hooked at the point and the lower one truncated; there are three webbed toes on each foot. The upper part of the body is of a greyish brown, and the belly white. ”

“ And now for the connection of the albatross with this accident. One of his messmates declared most solemnly that he had seen an albatross sweeping over the topgallant forecastle whenever this man—who had feasted upon one of his kind—had appeared upon it; and that at the very moment of his disappearance, (he fell from the head,) this same identical bird had made a swoop, and carried him overboard! Then, the men in the boat also affirmed, that when they reached the drowning man, two albatross were holding him up by the hair, whilst others, circling round his head, pecked wickedly at his face ”

“ Like all petrels and sea-gulls, the albatross makes its nest on crags and cliffs along the coast, choosing places that seem inaccessible. To gather the eggs of seafowls, which are esteemed a delicacy, and to capture the birds themselves for the feathers, is one of the most perilous employments. The adventurous fowlers are swung over precipices from five hundred to a thousand feet above the sea, sustained simply by a rope, that, by breaking, or slipping from the hands that hold it, must hurl them to certain destruction. ”

“ Huge albatrosses, molimorks (a smaller albatross) , Cape hens, Cape pigeons, parsons, boobies, whale birds, mutton birds, and many more, wheel continually about the ship's stern, sometimes in dozens, sometimes in scores, always in considerable numbers. If a person takes two pieces of pork and ties them together, leaving perhaps a yard of string between the two pieces, and then throws them into the sea, one albatross will catch hold of one end, and another of the other, each bolts his own end and then tugs and fights with his rival till one or other has to disgorge his prize ”

“ The albatross is a constant attendant on fishing parties, and if in low condition from scarcity of food or other causes, soon regains its flesh and fat, so voraciously does it devour. It is no uncommon occurrence for one of these birds to take a fish of several pounds' weight into its mouth, and having swallowed one extremity, to wait, like the boa-constrictor, digesting and gulping until the whole is consumed. ”

“ Cape pigeons were now become more numerous, and the large albatross more rare. The sooty albatross was still seen in considerable numbers, as were also the dark and the blue petrel.
In the afternoon we hove to, and tried the temperature of the sea, to the depth of six hundred fathoms; after which we bore away under more moderate sail; the fog being very thick, great vigilance was necessary during the night, whilst running seven knots, to avoid bergs and enable the Terror to keep company. ”

“ And a good south wind sprung up behind,
The Albatross did follow;
And every day for food or play
Came to the Marinere's hollo! ”

“ It is a not uncommon practice with passengers to endeavour to catch these noble birds by a bait fastened to a hook and buoyed with corks. That such a cruel practice should ever be tolerated, even ‘to relieve the monotony of the voyage,’ is to us inconceivable, and can only be accounted for as the last resource of a brutally morbid fancy.
The albatross is essentially the scavenger of the ocean, and we doubt whether it makes any attempt to capture living fish unless when very hungry, for we have seen flying-fish rising in quantities while the albatrosses made no attempt to catch them. ”

“ The albatross was evidently hungry and it might take very little indeed to invite an attack. The bird was practically carnivorous, for it ate anything in the way of flesh it could capture. It was very powerful and could get the best of a man without much trouble, provided the man was incapable of vigorous defense. ”

“ well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung. ”

“ How long in that same fit I lay, I have not to declare; But ere my living life returned, I heard and in my soul discerned Two VOICES in the air. "Is it he?" quoth one, "Is this the man? By him who died on cross, With his cruel bow he laid full low, The harmless Albatross. "The spirit who bideth by himself In the land of mist and snow, He loved the bird that loved the man Who shot him with his bow." The other was a softer voice, As soft as honey-dew: Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, And penance more will do." ”

“ But the most interesting as well as the largest of all the ocean birds is the albatross. There are two or three kinds of this bird; the largest of them has a spread of wing varying from twelve to fifteen feet, and one has been caught measuring seventeen feet from tip to tip. With outspread wings, his body, as he sails about in the air, looks as large as a barrel, but when stripped of its feathers its size diminishes very much. ”

“ If the albatross desires to turn to the right he bends his head and tail slightly upwards, at the same time raising his left side and wing, and lowering the right in proportion to the sharpness of the curve he wishes to make, the wings being kept quite rigid the whole time. To such an extent does he do this, that in sweeping round, his wings are often pointed in a direction nearly perpendicular to the sea ”

“ When it is possible to do so, an albatross should be mounted with wings, outspread, to reveal to the student their enormous length, and the disproportionate shortness of the primaries and secondaries. If all the albatrosses in a museum collection are mounted with closed wings, as they nearly always are, the average observer gains not the faintest conception of the form and size of the bird in motion—its normal condition. ”

“ Mr Earle, whose observations were made on the almost inaccessible heights of Tristan d'Acunha, remarks:—'The huge albatross here appeared to dread no interloper or enemy, for their young were on the ground completely uncovered, and the old ones were stalking around them. They lay but one egg, on the ground, where they make a kind of nest by scraping the earth around it: the young is entirely white, and covered with a woolly down, which is very beautiful. ”

“ Goatsuckers, geese, carrion vultures, and many other birds of plain plumage have been observed to dance, spread their wings or tails, and perform strange love-antics. The courtship of the great albatross, a most unwieldy and dull coloured bird, has been thus described by Professor Moseley: "The male, standing by the female on the nest, raises his wings, spreads his tail and elevates it, throws up his head with the bill in the air, or stretches it straight out, or forwards, as far as he can, and then utters a curious cry." ”

“ This is particularly the case with the albatross, which (if a tolerably stiff breeze be blowing) can sail about for an hour at a time without once flapping its wings. In this case the wing is wielded in one piece like the insect wing, the bird simply screwing and unscrewing the pinion on and off the wind, and exercising a restraining influence—the breeze doing the principal part of the work. In the bat the wing is jointed as in the bird, and folded during the up stroke. ”

“ The self-same moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea. ”

“ This species is entirely sooty brown except the white eyelids. It is similar to the Black-footed Albatross from which species it can be distinguished in all plumages by the narrow base of the bill, while the bill of the former species is broad and rounded. They breed commonly on isolated islands in many quarters of the southern hemisphere. Sometimes this species constructs a mound of mud on which to deposit its single white egg, and also often lays it on the bare ground or rock. ”