AL'BATEOSS (Dionzedea), a genus of web-footed birds of the family of the Laridcr, nearly allied to gulls and petrels. Their feet have no hind-toe nor claw; they have a large strong beak—the upper mandible, with strongly marked sutures, and a hooked point. The common A. (D. ezulans), also called the wandering A., is the largest of web-footed birds, the spread of wing being sometimes 12 ft., and the weight 20 lbs. or upwards. The wings are, however, narrow in proportion to their length. This bird is often seen at a great distance from land, and abounds in the southern seas, particularly near the cape of Good Hope, whence sailors sometimes call it the cape sheep. It often approaches very near to vessels, and is oue of the objects of interest which present themselves to voyagers far away from land, particularly when it is seen sweeping the surface of the ocean in pursuit of flying-fish. It seems rather to float and glide in the air than to fly like other birds, as, except when it is rising from the water, the motion of its long wings is scarcely to be perceived. The plumage is soft and abundant, mostly white, dusky on the upper parts, some of the feathers of the back and wings black. The bill is of a deli cate pinky-white, inclining to yellow at the tip. The A. is extremely voracious ; it feeds chiefly on fish and molluscs, but has no objection to the flesh of a dead whale, or to any kind.of carrion. It is not a courageous bird, and is often compelled to yield up its prey
to sea-eagles, and even to the larger kinds of gulls. When food is abundant, it gorges itself, like the vultures, and then sits motionless upon the water, so that it may some times be taken with the hand. Not unfrequently, however, on the approach of a boat, it disgorges the undigested food, and thus lightened, it flies off. Its cry has been cone pared to that of the pelican ; it also sometimes emits a noise which has been likened to the braying of an ass. Its flesh is unpalatable. It heaps up a rude nest of earth not far from the sea, or deposits its solitary egg in a slight hollow which it makes in the dry ground. The egg is about 4 in. long, white, and spotted at the larger end ; it is edible. There are seven species of this genus. One of these (D. fuliginosa), chiefly found within the antarctic circle, is called by sailors the Quaker bird, on account of the prevailing brown color of its plumage, Albatrosses appear in great numbers towards the end of June, about the Kurile islandss and Kamtchatka. The Kamtchadales take them by baited hooks, blow up the entrails for floats to their nets, and make tobacco-pipes and various domestic articles of the wing-bones.