PALMIPEDES. 411 



DiOMEDEA, Lin.(l) 



The Albatross is the most raassive of all aquatic birds. The large, 

 strong and trenchant bill is marked with sutures, and is terminated 

 by a stout hook, which seems to be articulated with it. The nostrils 

 resemble short rolls laid on the sides of the beak; there is no thumb, 

 not even the small nail that is observed in the Petrels. They inhabit 

 the South seas, and feed on Mollusca, &c. 



D. exulanSy L., Enl. 237; Vieill. Gal. 293, is the species best 

 known to navigators, who, on account of its size, white plumage, 

 and black wings, and because it is particularly common beyond 

 the tropic of Capricorn, have called it The Cape Sheep. The 

 English also style it the Alan of War Bird, Sec. It is the great 

 enemy of the Flying-fish. It constructs a high nest of earth, 

 and lays a number of eggs, which are considered good food. 

 The cry of this bird is said to be as powerful as that of the 

 % Ass.(2) 



Various Albatrosses, more or less brown or blackish, have 

 been observed; but whether they form varieties of the exulans, 

 or are distinct species, has not yet been ascertained. (3) 



Larus, Lin. (4) 



The Gulls have a compressed, elongated, pointed bill, the superior 

 mandible arcuated near the end, and the inferior forming a salient 

 angle beneath. The nostrils, placed near its middle, are long, nar- 

 row, and bored quite through; their tail is full, their legs tolerably 

 long, and their thumb short. They arc cowardly and voracious 



(1) Diomedea,the ancient name of certain birds of the Island of Diomedes, near 

 Tarentum, which were said to receive the Greeks favourably, and to attack the 

 barbarians. As to the word Albatross, I find that the early Portuguese navig-ators 

 called the Boobies and other oceanic birds Mcatros, or Mcatrass. Dampier applied 

 this name to the present genus. Grew changed it into Albitross, and Edwards into 

 Albatross. 



(2) The cry of the Albatross has been quite as much exaggerated as its size. I 

 have repeatedly heard it when within a hundred yards of the bird, and fi'om various 

 individuals, some of large size, and consequently adults it is a piping kind of 

 clang, deeper than that of a Goose, but something like it. .ivi. Ed. 



(3) Such is the Diom. spadicea Add D. brachyura. Tern. Enl. 963; D. melano- 

 phris, T. Col. 456; D. chlororhynchos. Lath. V, pi. xciv, (?ol. 468; D. fuliginosa. 

 Col. 469. 



(4) Larus, the Greek name of these birds, Gania in latin, wlience Gabian in 

 Provence; they are called Mamies, or Moiiettes, in French, from their German 

 name Mave. 



