The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-04-10
Curious Facts Abont the Alhafr0ss.

W. ehS nhSoUA 1000
No passenger to southern lands can
have failed to note the extraordinary
powers Of fight Of this magnificent bird
and the wonderful ease with which it
sweeps for some minutes together
through the air on expanded, motionless
pinions, rising and falling slightly, and
taking advantage of the gravity of it's
own body and the angle at which the
wind strikes its feathered sails to pro-
long the course of its fight with the least
possible effort. Seldom, except in calm
weather, may it be seen to alight upon
the water, from which it rises with diff
Guilty, running for some distance alongthe
surface. The ends of the wings clear Of
the water, it turns toward the breeze,
and rises into the air in q gentle curve,
exactly in the same manner as O paper
kite. That the albatross follows a ship
for many days in succession, sleeping at
night upon the water, ami coming up
with her 10 the morning, there can be no
doubt. We have watched them for seve-
raj consecutive evenings during fine
weather, in the latitude of the trade
winds, settling down on the water at sun
down, and preening their feathers, until
they became mere specks in the field OF
the telescope; but they were with US
again in the morning soon after sunrise;
some strangers among them, perhaps.
but several which, from some peculiarly
of marking, we knew to be our compan-
ions of the day before. In one instance,
a conspicuous mark had been made by a
pistol-bullet in the wing of an old brown.
headed and %curiously pied bird, by which
he could be- identified beyond doubt.
The second or third dight-feather had
been shot away, leaving a clearly defined
gap in the wing as it came between the
light and the eye; and this bird followed
us for three days after having been fred
at, though we had been sailing an ave-
rage of nearly eight k OTIS an hour. One
of the most striking examples Of their
endurance on the wing, however, is the
fact, which we have more than once OBJ.
served, hat the same birds which had
been unweariedly following us in the
day, accompanied us throughout the
whole of the succeeding night, as could
he easily verified by the light Of the
moon. It is q net uncommon practice
with passengers to endeavor 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,
aver "to relieve the monotony of the
VOYAGE" is to us inconceivable, and can
only be accounted for as the last resource
of q brutally morbid fancy. The alba
tross 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 fly
ing fish rising in quantities while the al
batrosses made no attempt to catch them.
That the nautilus is sometimes eaten IS
evident, for we have taken it from the
stomach; but the chief food is dead fish
and other refuse. In the South Atlantic
we passed the dead body of a small whale,
on and around which were at least a hun
bred of these birds. either gorged or
gorging themselves with the blubber; and
guns discharged at them failed to induce
many of them to take wing. We had on
one occasion an opportunity of observing
how rapidly these birds collect about a
carcass. Like vultures Of ravens, when
an animal dies they discover it very
speedily, and flock to the scene of the
banquet. On a hot still evening in the
South Atlantic a Eorse died, and when
cast over board Iext morning, the gases
already formed by decomposition enabled
it to float. The few albatrosses in our
company Immediately settled down upon
it; but in less than an hour we could see
through the telescope a great cloud OF
the birds on the sea and lowering around
the unexpected prize, the almost entire
absence Of wind having kept us within
two or three miles of the spot. It may
be that the usually white plumage en-
ables stragglers, far out of human ken,
to see their fellows gathering in the
neighborhood of food; others again from
still more remote distances may see them,
and so on; until stragglers over hundreds
of miles of space may be gathered to one
common rendezvous. The greater part
OF the year is passed by them at a distance
from land; but they flock to barren and
almost inaccessible rocks, where the fe-
male lays her one dirty white egg in a
slight depression upon the bare earth,
the sitters being frequently so close to-
gether that it is difficult to walk without
touching them. They are totally indifer-
ent to the presence Of man, and merely
indicate their resent of his intrusion into
their nursery by swapping at him as he
passes. The parents share the labor OF
incubation and rearing the young, and
when this is over, they all go Stewards
together, and silence and solitude once
more reign where all had been clamorous
and busy life.