When these elegant birds are captured, and brought on board, their sleek, delicate and clean plumage is a subject of much admiration; and the fine snow-white down which remains after the removal of the outer feathers, is in requisition among ladies for muffs, tippets, &c. The large species of albatross measures from eight to fourteen feet. I have even heard it asserted, that specimens have been shot of this species, the expanded wings of which measured twenty feet across; but the greatest spread I have seen, has been fourteen feet.[21] The immense distance these birds are capable of flying, seems almost incredible, although often ascertained by birds having been caught, marked, and again set at liberty. When seizing an object floating on the water, they gradually descend with expanded or upraised wings, or sometimes alight, and float like a duck on the water, while devouring their food; then, elevating themselves, they skim the surface of the ocean with expanded wings, giving frequent impulses, (as the great length of their wings prevents their rising with facility from a level surface,) as they run along for some distance, until they again soar in mid-air, and recommence their erratic flights. It is interesting to view them during boisterous weather, flying with, and even against, the wind, seeming the “gayest of the gay” in the midst of howling winds and foaming waves. To watch the flight of these birds used to afford me much amusement;—commencing with the difficulty experienced by them in elevating themselves from the water. To effect this object, they spread their long pinions to the utmost, giving them repeated impulses as they run along the surface of the water for some distance. Having, by these exertions, raised themselves above the wave, they ascend and descend, and cleave the atmosphere in various directions, without any apparent muscular exertion. How then, it may be asked, do these birds execute such movements? The whole surface of the body in this, as well as, I believe, most, if not all, the oceanic tribes, is covered by numerous air-cells, capable of a voluntary inflation or diminution, by means of a beautiful muscular apparatus. By this power, the birds can raise or depress themselves at will, and the tail, and great length of the wing, enable them to steer in any direction. Indeed, without some provision of this kind, to save muscular exertion, it would be impossible for these birds to undergo such long flights without repose, as they have been known to do; for the muscles appertaining to the organs of flight, although large in these birds, are evidently inadequate in power to the long distances they have been known to fly, and the immense length of time they remain on the wing, without scarcely a moment’s cessation.