ALBATROSSES. 423 



the surface, and can be snapped up before they sink again. Throughout the 

 breeding season the petrel is indefatigable in search of food, and will follow 

 ships for considerable distances, in hopes of obtaining some of the offal that 

 is thrown over by the cook. During the night it mostly remains with its 

 offspring, and makes a curious grunting noise like the croaking of frogs. The 

 ordinary cry is low, short, and something like the quacking of a young duck. 

 By day these birds are silent. The burrow in which the young petrel is hatched 

 is exceedingly odoriferous, the food on which they live having a very rancid and 

 unsavoury smell, so that both the habitation and its inmates are abominably 

 offensive to the nostrils. The young one is at first very helpless, and remains 

 in its excavated home until several weeks old. 



A remarkable group {Pelicanoides) inhabit the coasts of New Zealand, 

 Australia, and the southern parts of South Am.erica. They are generally seen 

 in troops, on the surface of the water near the shore, or on the inland' seas, 

 diving with considerable facility after their prey, which appears to consist of 

 small fishes. During the evening they fly moderately well, keeping a direct 

 course by the rapid movements of their short wings. The South American 

 species, if disturbed while on the water, immediately dives with great ease, and 

 on coming to the surface at once takes flight ; but having flown some distance, 

 it drops like a stone on the water as though struck dead, and instantaneously 

 dives again. 



The members of another section {Prion), usually met with between the thirty- 

 fifth and seventieth degrees of south latitude, may be constantly seen in ex- 

 tremely rapid flight, sometimes alone, sometimes in flocks. Their nests are 

 made in society with each other, in burrows about a yard deep, excavated in a 

 hill-side, sometimes at a distance of half a mile from the sea-shore. The eggs 

 of these birds are white, of an elongated shape, and of the size of those of a 

 pigeon. 



Snb-Faviilj' II. 

 THE ALBATROSSES. DIOMEDEIN/E. 



General Char.\cteristics.— Nostrils short, tubular, widest anteriorly, and placed 

 near the base of the lateral gi-oove. 



These, the largest of marine birds, are found throughout both 

 hemispheres, but more especially in the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, and throughout the Southern 

 Ocean generally. They are seen sometimes at a great distance 

 from land, skimming over the surface of the sea with great rapidity, 

 or resting on the waves. During strong gales and stormy weather 

 they soar into the higher region of the air. They feed most 

 voraciously on fish, especially the flying-fishes, as also on mollusca 

 and gelatinous animals. To such an extent do they cram them- 



