-Great South Bay in Long Island, Barnegat Bay in New Jersey, Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds in North Carolina and parts of Chesapeake Bay. These enclosed areas are at present producing a great deal of human food, but only a small part of what they might produce under proper management. On a larger scale, the Baltic and North Seas of Europe are similar regions where, if not sea culture, at least an intelligent harvesting of the seas' resources is yearly becoming more possible because of the careful studies which have been made by the English, German and Scandinavian biologists, whose countries are chiefly interested in the matter.

Before we can expect to make substantial advance we must have a much more comprehensive knowledge of the ecology of the sea than we have at present. For example, we may class the animals of the sea roughly into those which are valuable to man and those which are not, but when it comes to determining to which of these classes any particular species belongs, difficulties arise. The dif ference which direct and indirect utilization of food makes has already been pointed out. Some useful species which get their food at second or third hand, that is, by eating other animals, prey largely on forms that would not otherwise be converted into human food; some, on the other hand, eat species that are good human food. Thus, drumfish are good human food, but they may at times consume large numbers of oysters which are still more valuable to man than they are. Starfish, which are utterly useless forms, also attack oysters, but this case offers no perplexities. A very large number of animals are useless in the sense that they occupy space and consume food which might otherwise be utilized by useful species. The snails, sponges, sea anemones and some of the mussels of our northern waters belong to this group. However, in the case of most marine animals only a complete account of their life histories, together with the life histories of their associated forms is sufficient to enable us to know whether they are, in the long run, valuable or harmful from the human standpoint and whether it would be wise for us to attempt to overturn the balance which we find them maintaining in nature.

Another phase demanding careful study is the effect on the marine life of the waste materials which are constantly being poured into our waters, especially in the vicinity of our great cities. So far as industrial wastes and oil are concerned, the effect is wholly bad, and the questions at issue are: How much of this discharge is necessary? How can the pollution best be restricted to the necessary minimum? The sewage problem is more complex. The addition of large amounts of rich nitrogenous fertilizing material to our waters could be made a great source of wealth if it were

properly utilized, and even under our present hit or miss methods it results in a marked enrichening of the marine flora in favored localities. On the other hand, the danger of disease transmission is so well recognized and is illustrated by so many striking examples that large areas of sewage-polluted waters are eliminated as sources of food in whole or in part. How to utilize this valuable asset without endangering public health or spoiling the recreational value as well as the food value of our coastal waters is one of the biological problems of our day.

Finally, it may be reiterated that shellfish culture offers the most immediate hope for effective utilization of the sea's resources. The economy of direct utilization of plant food by these animals has been emphasized. Most shellfish, like land crops, stay where they are planted. Even the scallop, which can swim about after a fashion, is restricted in its movements and could readily be controlled. Oyster culture is already a great and important industry but it has not nearly approached its possibilities. Clam culture is still in an embryonic stage and scallop culture has as yet merely been suggested. When some of the problems confronting the establishment of these industries have been solved we may hope to have acquired additional information concerning the ecology of the sea which will help us in our approach to the more difficult problems of the future.

It is recognized that there are numerous economic phases involved in attempts to increase the productivity of the sea, but consideration of these would be beyond the scope of this paper. When social and economic forces demand additional food at reasonable prices, the biologists must be prepared to show where and how this may best be obtained.

OUR GREAT ROVERS OF THE HIGH SEASTHE ALBATROSS

By Dr. R. W. SHUFELDT

FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION,
WASHINGTON, D. C.

N going over the literature devoted to ornithology, we find that

Alexander Wilson, the famous American ornithologist, never once mentions any of them in his work; and Audubon, who had splendid opportunities to study them in nature as well as in museums and private collections, touched upon those he had heard of, or studied skins of, in the lightest possible manner. In volume VIII of his work in my library, I note that he devotes but a single paragraph to the description of the genus (Diomedea). Apart from the description of characters, he gives but three and a half lines to the Yellow-nosed Albatross; a few lines more to the Black-footed Albatross, and four lines and a half to the Dusky Albatross-the last-named being the only one he figures. He was indebted to a "Mr. Townsend" for skins of all these species, the latter having collected them "not far from the mouth of the Columbia River."

As to the Black-footed Albatross, Audubon says: "It is clearly distinct from the other two described in his work, namely, the Dusky and the Yellow-nosed; but I have received no information respecting its habits. Not finding any of the meagre notices or descriptions to which I can refer to agree with this bird, I have taken the liberty of giving it a name, being well assured that, should it prove to have been described, some person will kindly correct the mistake." He named it Diomedea nigripes, the Blackfooted Albatross, and it is the name we have for the species to-day.

In the last A. O. U. "Check-List" (1910), in addition to the bird just mentioned, we recognize four other species as belonging to the North American avifauna, namely, the Short-tailed Albatross (D. albatrus); the Laysan Albatross of Rothschild (D. immutabilis), and the Yellow-nosed and the Sooty Albatrosses (T. culminatus and P. palpetrata). These are all Pacific Ocean birds, though the Yellow-nosed species is said to have "accidentally occurred in the Gulf of St. Lawrence."

Personally, I do not recall ever having seen an Albatross in

nature; only a few of our ornithologists have, and, as just stated, neither Wilson nor Audubon fared any better. However, I have carefully examined quite a number of them in the collections of the United States National Museum; and not long ago, Dr. Charles W. Richmond, Assistant Curator of the Division of Birds of that institution, kindly loaned me the head of a specimen of the Sooty Albatross. It had no artificial eyes, and apparently was simply a head and nothing more-not even bearing any label or history. This head I photographed on side view, reducing it about one fourth, furnishing the print with an eye. That print is here reproduced as an illustration to my article.

Audubon's description of the beak of this species is so obscure as to be of but little value.

The plumage of the head- -a rich snuff-brown-is soft and composed of fine feathers, and there is a narrow white stripe of short feathers surrounding the posterior half of the eye-lid on either side of the head. The beak is glossy black and formed as shown in the cut.

There is in existence a wonderful literature on the Albatrosses, especially when we consider how few species there are comparatively speaking. The old figures of them in the works are often very crude; while, upon the other hand, some fine photographic reproductions in different works are wonderfully fine and of great value. Among these are the remarkable photographs obtained by the Hon. Sir Walter Rothschild of the immense numbers of the Laysan Albatrosses, nesting on the island of that name; of the dreadful practice of carting away the eggs of that species, taken at the same place, and many others. Then Mr. Dudley Le Souëf, Director of the Melbourne Zoological Garden, has furnished us with a fine. photograph of the White-capped Albatross on its egg, which latter, according to Professor Moseley, is held in a sort of pouch to be found between the legs of the bird.

Some species of these birds have a "tip to tip" measurement of the wings of no less than eleven feet and a few inches. It is a well-known fact that in the southern seas, where sailors have fallen overboard, they have been attacked in the water by one or more of these giants of the feathered race, and a poem on an incident of this sort would quite offset the experience of the ancient mariner who shot the albatross, which furnished Coleridge with the material for his famous verses.

The marvelous flight of one of these birds has been graphically described by Mr. Froude, who tells us that "the albatross wheels in circles round and round, and forever round the ship-now far behind, now sweeping past in a long, rapid curve, like a perfect skater on an untouched field of ice. There is no effort;