ALBATROSS (from the Port. Alcatraz, a pelican)

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 491 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: AJA-ALL

ALBATROSS (from the Port. Alcatraz, a pelican) , the name of a genus of aquatic birds (Diomedea), closely allied to the petrels, and belonging; like them, to the order Tubinares. In the name Diomedea, assigned to them by Linnaeus, there is a reference to the mythical metamorphosis of the companions of the Greek warrior Diomedes into birds. The beak is large, strong and

sharp

SHARP,
GRANVILLE
- GRANVILLE
- GRANVILLE, GRANVILLE
- GRANVILLE, JOHN
  CARTERET
  - CARTERET, SIR GEORGE (c. 1610-1680)
  , EARL (1690-1763)
(1735-1813)
SHARP, JAMES (1618-1679)
SHARP, JOHN (1645-1714)
SHARP, RICHARD (1759-1835)
SHARP, WILLIAM (1749-1824)
SHARP, WILLIAM (1856-1905)

-edged, the upper mandible terminating in a large hook; the wings are narrow and very long; the feet have no hind toe, and the three anterior toes are completely webbed. The best known is the common or wandering albatross (D. exulans), which occurs in all parts of the Southern Ocean. It is the largest and' strongest of all sea-birds. The length of the

body

BODY

is stated at 4 ft., and the

weight

WEIGHT

at from 15 to 25 lb. It sometimes

measures

MEASURES

as much as 17 ft. between
the tips of the extended wings, averaging probably from to to 12 ft. Its strength of wing is very

great

GREAT

. It often accompanies a ship for daysnot merely following it, but wheeling in wide circles round itwithout ever being observed to alight on the water, and continues its
flight, apparently untired, in L"^=100_ tempestuous as well as in
moderate weather. It has even been said to sleep on
the wing, and Moore alludes
to this fanciful " cloud-
rocked slumbering " in his
Fire Worshippers. It feeds on small fish and on the animal refuse that floats on the sea, eating to such excess at times that it is unable to fly and rests helplessly on the water. The colour of the bird is white, the back being streaked transversely with black or brown bands, and the wings dark. Sailors capture the bird for its long wing-bones, which they manufacture into tobacco-pipe stems. The albatross

lays

LAYS

one egg; it is white, with a few spots, and is about 4 in. long. In breeding-time the bird resorts to solitary

island

ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

groups, like the Crozet Islands and the elevated Tristan da Cunha, where it has its nesta natural hollow or a circle of earth roughly scraped togetheron the open ground. The early explorers of the

great

GREAT

Southern Sea cheered themselves with the companion-ship of the albatross in its dreary solitudes; and the evil hap of him who shot with his

cross

CROSS

-bow the bird of good omen is familiar to readers of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Several species of albatross are known; for the smaller forms see MALLEMUCK.

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