Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/326

322 as the adults, covered with brownish down, except on the breast where the white permanent feathering had in most cases been acquired. Their appearance is ludicrous beyond description, reminding one of great brown goslings sitting upright, balanced on their heels with their toes in the air. Upon being approached they make no attempt whatever to escape, but straighten up as if about to give a military salute and snap their mandibles together with great rapidity, making a rattling noise amusing at first, but annoying after a few thousand repetitions. Occasionally they resented the intruding foot and vomited a quantity of half-digested food, a most disgusting mess, over the trouser leg of the visitor.

The scene at the main rookery is beyond description. Here are acres and acres of level ground worn bare of vegetation and literally covered with albatrosses. At the time of our visit probably four out of five were young birds born the preceding February, although adults are everywhere sprinkled among them. Although the vast majority are of the white species, there are a few sooty albatrosses which generally prefer the u])per levels of the beaches. Of course all these youngsters have to be fed, and at any given time most of the adults are at sea fishing for sustenance for their rapidly growing and voracious progeny. So far as we could ascertain this food consisted almost exclusively of squid. The stomachs we dissected contained squid and nothing else, and the only solid excrement was the eyes and beaks of these animals. Mr. Schlemmer, manager for the guano company, estimates that about two million albatrosses make their home