The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-07-09

bob up and down Idly upon the waves
 and inquisitive bills peck vigorously a
 the unsatisfactory hoatsam, until bat
 tie royal dsperses the family party
 The wiser ones, meanwhile, hover il
 midair, craning their necks to throWr
 penetrating glances from a superior
 height.
 With the birds settling by the dozen
 it is easy enough to capture specimens
 for examination without causing injury
 or pain. Any sharply barbed hook i:
 altogether superfiuous. The albatrosses
 absolutely enjoy the excitement, and tht
 sport obtained IS not without nove
 interest. A small metal frame should b.
 made in the shape of a hollow triangle
 attached to a hundred yards of stout l line, and kept afioat by a good sized
 piece of cork. The sides of the metal
 frame are then covered with bits of fat
 pork, the hard skin of which is secure 1 ly bound thereto. the bait is thrown astern and the line is slowly paid out.
 Presently a great albatross swoops | through the air, inpelled by curiosity | to investigate the nature of the floating
 pork It settles before the dainty mor-
 sel of food, numbers of birds follow suit,
 each one made bold by competition, and
 then, the sport begins At this moment
 additional line must be given in order to compensate for the progression of the ship, thus enabling the bird to seize the desired food With sudden rush the supreme effort is made. Once or twice
 the attempt proves intellectual, but, ren- dered bold by greatness, final grab finds the curved bill securely Wedged
 inside the apex of the trianggle, as the fierce tugs on the line quickly. Steadily
 the haul is made, hand over hand, until a helpless albatross is bodily lifted on
 to the poop in an absolutely uninjured
 condition. A slackened line enables the
 bird to escape, and if scattered wits permitted such an effort sudden flight
 would also obtain release. The other birds invariably commence to attack q captured comrade, steady pull being required, even if the line does cut your hands. to save it from it's friends,
 Once safely on deck the maudibles are tied together, for otherwise the birds throw up an oily fluid, disagreeable habit possessed by all the tribe. Sub ject to this precaution. 1t may wander gravely around to survey the new horizon of life. The large. eyes gaze with q truly pathetic confidence, ex- pressiye of anything but fear It is strange spectacle to witness the inqui- sitive bird soemnly straddle to and fro among the equally inquisltiye human beings around. True, 1t objects slightly to the process of measurement, pecking sharply by way of protest, but gentle box on the ear soon induces submission as the dimensions are rapidly noted, the albatross meanwhile reposing affection ately in the arms of the second officer. The specimen happens to be small one, but the wing expansion from tip to tip is no less than ten feet, the extreme, length of body is three feet six inches, and the formidable bill measures up- wards of four inches. Everything about the great wandering albatross CD eXulans) is vast-the wings are enor- nous; the flight is reckoned by the thousand miles, and it's very nest may be Island of Tristan de Cunha-7, ,000 feet above the sea level, The plumage va ries greatly on different specimens at different seasons; young ones, like our friend under observation having mot tied brown appearance The bill has rosy tinge al the base of the mandibles, passing into horn color at the tip of the curve of the cuimen The head, neck and body, together with the breasts, are white; the mantle has beau- tiful pencillngs of black. The wings are brown above and white underneath tipped above and below with black--an character of the great alba tross. The tail is chiefly white relieved by blotches of black, which give the ap- pearance of black bar edging the white coverts, The legs, feet and toes have q peculiar blueish gray with suspicion of livid pinkish hue some what difficult to define. The black pu- pills are bordered with green. I found eleven feet six inches to be the average wing measurement, although gigantic l specimen in the Sydney Museum ex- tends seventeen feet six inches, with a | bill six inches long. All sailors are fa- | niliar with the wandering albatross in | It's varying plumages. While the young | and even second year birds possess ev- ery variety of brown coloration the really mature specimens-espe specially | 'ound the Horn-are nearly pure white, l with the black tips above and below | Most of the other species are mostly confused by sailors under the general term 'molymauk) Ca word spelled in flyers ways) and it took me many weeks to distinguish the different kinds. The Cornhill Magazine