NATATORES. 431 



had a strange unnatural echo, and I fancied our forms 

 appeared gigantic, whilst the air was piercing cold. The 

 prospect was altogether subKme and filled the mind with awe : 

 the huge Albatros here appeared to dread no interloper or 

 enemy, for their young were on the ground completely 

 uncovered, and the old ones were stalking around them. 

 They lay but one egg, on the ground, where they make a 

 kind of nest by scraping the earth around it; the young 'is 

 entirely white and covered with a woolly down, which is very 

 beautiful. As we approached they snapped their beaks with 

 a very quick motion, making a great noise; this and the 

 throwing up of the contents of the stomach are the only 

 means of offence and defence they seem to possess. I again 

 visited the mountain about five months afterwards, when I 

 found the young Albatroses still sitting on their nests, and 

 they had never moved away from them." 



To this interesting account I beg to append the following 

 notes, kindly furnished me by Dr. McCormick, Surgeon of 

 H.M.S. ' Erebus ' during the late expedition to the south 

 pole : — 



" The Diomedea exulans breeds in Auckland and Campbell 

 Islands, in the months of November and December. The 

 grass-covered declivities of the hills, above the thickets of 

 wood, are the spots selected by the Albatros for constructing 

 its nest ; which consists of a mound of earth, intermingled 

 with withered grass and leaves matted together, 18 inches in 

 height, 6 feet in circumference at the base, and 27 inches in 

 diameter at the top, in which only one egg is usually depo- 

 sited ; for after an examination of more than a hundred nests, 

 I met with two eggs in the same nest in one solitary instance 

 only. The eggs I had an opportunity of weighing varied in 

 weight from 14^ to 19 oz., thirty specimens giving an ave- 

 rage weight of 17 oz. ; colour white. The Albatros during 

 the period of incubation is frequently found asleep, with its 

 head under its wing : its beautiful white head and neck, ap- 



