Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . ls tucked under their wingcoverts. On January 20, 1913, I clambered up to the lower sitewith a camera. The nest proved to be merely a very slightaccumulation of blackish soil. The male parent, which wasbrooding a downy chick, grunted softly and snapped hisbeak with a hollow chop. He was comparatively trustful,however, and when I had backed away about six feet (asfar as the ledge would allow), he snuggled down and be-gan unconcernedly to draw blades of grass through hisbill, now and then glancing at me with a solemn, wide-eyed, perpetually astonished expression cause
Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . ls tucked under their wingcoverts. On January 20, 1913, I clambered up to the lower sitewith a camera. The nest proved to be merely a very slightaccumulation of blackish soil. The male parent, which wasbrooding a downy chick, grunted softly and snapped hisbeak with a hollow chop. He was comparatively trustful,however, and when I had backed away about six feet (asfar as the ledge would allow), he snuggled down and be-gan unconcernedly to draw blades of grass through hisbill, now and then glancing at me with a solemn, wide-eyed, perpetually astonished expression caused by his curi-ous, broken, orbital ring. Presently the youngster stuck itshead out from beneath its sire. It looked like a nestlingvulture because the feathers on the head were very short,while long down covered the rest of its body. It snappedits soft little bill at me just as the old bird had done. Thefather Albatross seemed to try to calm his baby. He bentover it, and kept touching its head with his bill, all his ac- 100. MALE SOOTY ALBATROSS BROODING ITS YOUNGPhotographed on a cliff in the Bay of Isles, South Georgia, January 20, 1913. tions showing tenderness and pride. A\Tien I took theyoungster out of the nest, it immediate^ crawled back, inspite of its very weak legs. The instinct to lie in one par-ticular spot from birth until flight is possible, is stronglydeveloped in this species. It is easy to understand, on oncevisiting the Sootys precarious cradle, that natural selec-tion could not fail to weed out all restless, fidgety babyAlbatrosses, preserving, to perpetuate the race, only thosewhich are content to lie low and wait. The habitat group of Sooty Albatrosses, which hasbeen installed for the present in the central section of thenatural history floor, is a replica of a nesting scene at SouthGeorgia. The background, painted by Mr. Tschudy fromphotographs and color sketches, shows a representative bitof the islands much indented northern coastline. The threebirds, co
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidbrooklynmuseumqu46broouof
