Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1889 — Flight of the Albatross. [ARTICLE]

Flight of the Albatross.

Of all birds, the albatross has, perhaps, the most extended powers ol flight It has been known to follow a vessel for several successive days, without once touching the water, except to pick out food, and even then it does not settle. In describing the flight of thiß bird from personal observation, Capt Hutton writes as follows: “The flight of the albatross is truly majestic, as with outstretched, motionless wings be sails over the surface of the «®a—now rising high in the air, now with a bold sweep, and wings inclined at an angle with the horiaon, descending until the tip of the lower one all but touches the" crests of the waves as he Bkims over them. I have sometimes watched narrowly One of these birds sailing and wheeling about in aU directions for more than an hour without seeing the slightest movement of the wings, and .have never witnessed any tiring to eqva 1 the ease and grace of this bird as he sweeps past, often within a few yards—every part of his body perfectly motionless except the head and eye, which turn slowly arid seem to take notice of everything. ‘Tranquil its spirit seemed and floated slow. Even in its very motion there was rest’”—St James Gazette.

The Rodents are Nightly Customer# of a Broadway Restaurant. A restaurant on Broadway, not a half mile from Canal Street, is the theater of performances every night that are hot down on the bills of fare. The play begins after dark and lasts until early morning. Usually it is still in action when the last spectator tires of watching through the unshuttered plate glass door and windows. Tho actors are rats. Four traps are placed around a large hole in the floor in such a manner that a rat crawling out would have to step on the spring of one of them and set it off; but the long headed little rodents are too sharp to be caught. They spring up through the hole, clearing the trap in safety. A little fellow about twelve inches long, after making hi3* appearance through the hole sat dowp and looked at the traps for a minute or two in a most sarcastic manner. Then with a whisk of his tail he sprang over the traps ana dived down the hole, only to reappear, followed by half a dozen of his companions. The traps are like ordinary fox traps, and do very little damago to the rats. When caught it" is generally by the legs, in which case the rat will gnaw off the limb or limbs and retire through another exit. Such casualties are rare. Several rats which appeared off and on throught the evening had but three legs apiece, but were nevertheless, as lively as the others. The rats ran across the floor and around the base of a cigar Indian in true Indian file, four or five in a string. A street urchin remarked that he would not spend the night inside in company with the rats for* all the money the restaurant made. “D’eir teeth ’ud go though shoe leather every .time,” he said. Two rats will meet and rub noses and run away again, or, if not friends, will have a regular Sullivan and Mitchell Bet-to. They gather in family parties of three or four at the tables for supper. One rat has lost its tail, evidently through being caught by a clam. The clams open their shells, and a rat, in looking around the oyster counter for a toothpick, carelessly lets his tail slip into the mouth of a clam. He will drag away the clam until he gets to the mouth of his hole, and then either he hangs there or his tail comes off. The rats are thick. There will ba twenty-five or thirty in one night, and one man said he had seen as many as fifty. A man passing called out, “What’s there?” and one of the urchin’s replied,, “rats.” The man was mad at first, but quieted down in an awe-stricken manner when he looked in at the window.. Another man, after looking at the rats, said: “Say, young man, are those rats?” The young man said, “Yes,” and slowly remarked: “I thought so, but I wanted to be sure.” Another man asked why ferrets were not used to exterminate the rats. His friend said that they had tried a ferret, and after getting all the blood he wanted, he played with the rats as though he was one of them.—New York Sun.