St. Landry democrat., 1878-05-25
Curious Facts About the Alba
tFOSS.


No passenger to southern lands Car
, have failed to note the extraordinary
powers of flight of this magnificent bird
and the wonderful ease with which il
sweeps for some minutes together
through the air on expanded, motion
less pinions, rising and falling lightly
and taking advantage of the gravity Of
it's own body and the angle at which
the wind strikes its feathered sails to
prolong the course of its fight with the
least possible effort. Seldom. except in
calm weather, may it be, seen to alight
on the water from which it rises with
difficulty, running for some distance
along the surface. The ends of the
wings clear of the water, it turns to-
ward the breeze, and rises into the air
in gentle curve, in exactly the same
manner as a paper kite. That the al
batross follows a ship for many days in
succession. sleeping at night upon the
water, and coming up with her in the
morning, there can be no doubt. We
have watched them for several consecu-
tive evenings during fine weather, in
the latitude of the trade>winds, settling
down on the water at shutdown, and
preening their feathers, until they be-
came mere specks in the field Of the tele-
scope; but they were with us again in
the morning soon after sunrise: some
strangers among them, perhaps, but
several which, from some popularity of
marking, we knew to be our companions
of the day before. In one instance, a
pistol-bullet in the wing of an old brown
headed and euriously"pied bird, by which
he could be identified beyond doubt.
The second or third fight-feather had
been shot away, leaving clearly defined
gap in the wing as it came between the
light and the eye; and this bird followed
us three days after having been fred at,
though We had been sailing an average of
yearly eight knots an hour. One of the
most striking examples of their endurance
on the wing, however, is the fact, which
we have more than once observed, that
the same birds which have been unwea
riedly following us in the day accompa-
MED us throughout the whole of the
succeeding night, as could be easily
verified by the light of the moon. It is
not uncommon practice with passengers
to endeavor to catch these noble birds
by bait faitened to 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
uncomfortable, and can only be accounted
for as the last resource of a brutality NOR
bid fancy. The albatross is essentially |
the scaveuger of the ocean, and we doubt
whether it makes any attempt to cap
ture living fish unless when very hun
cry, for we have seen flying.fsh rising
in quantities while the albatross made |
no attempt to catch them. That the
nautilus is sometimes eaten is evident,
for we have taken it from the stomach
but the chic: food is dead fish and |
other refuse. In the south Atlantic we
passed the dead body of a small whale,
en- and around which were at least a
hundred of these birds, either gorged or
gorging themselves with the blubber;
and gums 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
or ravens, when an animal dies they
discover it very speedily, and flock to
the scene of the banquet On hot,
still evening in the South Atlantic a
horse died, and when cast overheard
next morning, the gases already formed
by decomposition enabled it to float.
The few albatrosses in our company
settled down upon it; but.
in less than an hour we could see through
the telescope great cloud of the birds
on the sea, lowering rouud the unex.
pected prize, the almost entire absence
Of wind having kept us within two or
three miles of the spot. 1t may be that ,
The (usually) white plumage enables
far out of human ken, to see
their fellows gathering in the neighbor- I
hood of foed; others again from still
more remote distances may see them, and {
70 On, until stragglers over hundreds of ,
miles of space may be gathered to one
common rendezvous. The greater part
If the year j. passed by them at distance ,
rom land !; but they flock to barren and I
almost inaccessible rocks TO breed. There 8
he female lays her one dirty-white egg I
n a slight depression upon the bare 6
earth, the sitters being frequently SO (
lose together that it is difficult to walk t
without touching them. They are t
otally Indifferent to the presence Of man, G
md merely Indicate their resent of his /
intrusion into their nursery by swapping d
It him as he passes. The parents share /
he labor of incubation and rearing the !;