50 
are now covered with verdure. Two of these are situated 
near the edge of the table land, looking down on the land- 
ing place. 
* As we walked down the mountain on our return, we 
passed among flocks of albatrosses, engaged in the process 
of incubation, or tending their young. There are four 
species of them that breed on the island, none of which 
hatches more than one egg at a time, the Diomedea spa- 
dicea, exulans, chlororhynchos, and fuliginosa; the two former 
are at no trouble in constructing their nest, merely choos- 
ing a dry spot of ground and giving it a slight concavity 
to prevent the egg from rolling out of its place. The 
egg is white, very large, and of a peculiar shape, being 
uncommonly long in proportion to its diameter, and equally 
thick, or nearly so, at both ends. 
* The Black Albatrosses (D. fuliginosa) are at this season 
gregarious, building their nests close to each other. In the 
area of half an acre, I reckoned upwards of an hundred. 
They are constructed of mud, raised five or six inches, 
and slightly depressed at the top. At the time we passed, 
the young birds were not more than half grown, and covered 
with a whitish down. There was something exceedingly 
grotesque in the appearance of these birds, standing on their 
respective hillocks, motionless as so many statues, until we 
approached close to them, when they set up the strangest 
clattering with their beaks, and if we touched them, idis 
on us a deluge of fetid oily fluid from the stomach. 
“ The D. chlororhynchos builds its solitary nest in some 
sheltered corner, selecting, in particular, the small drains 
that draw the water off the land into the ravines. "There it 
runs up its nest to the height of 10 or 12 inches, of a cylin- 
drical form, with a small ditch round the base. A curious 
circumstance with regard to this bird, is, that when irritated 
the feathers of its cheeks are separated, so as to display a 
beautiful stripe of naked orange skin, running from the cor- 
ners of the mouth towards the back of the head. 
All of these birds nourish their young by disgorging 
the contents of their stomach. They are never observed 
