446 THE PETREL. 



leaves and grass, the average dimensions of which were 

 found to be eighteen inches in height, twenty-seven in 

 diameter at the top, and six feet at the base. Like the 

 Petrels, with which genus they are nearly allied, lay but 

 one egg, of a white colour, averaging seventeen ounces 

 in weight. In one nest only, out of at least a hundred 

 examined, were found two eggs, both of the full size, and 

 one of them unusually elongated in its longest diameter. 

 When forced off the egg, it made a resolute defence, 

 snapping the mandibles of its beak sharply together in 

 defiance." 



Their eggs are inferior to those of Geese, and they 

 have less yolk, and more white, in proportion to their 

 size, weighing generally about one pound and three 

 quarters. All birds of the Albatross and Gull kind on 

 these islands, lay their eggs in October; and when new 

 laid they are a great source of refreshment. Voyagers 

 mention another large bird, called the Nelly-bird, also a 

 species of Albatross, (Diomedea spadicea) of an unpleasing 

 appearance, and extremely voracious. Their fondness 

 for blubber often induces them to eat so much that, like 

 the gorged Gull we have described, they are unable to 

 fly. A flock, of perhaps five or six hundred, have been 

 known to devour twenty tons of sea-elephant fat in six 

 or eight hours; that is, upwards of seventy pounds for 

 each. The Albatross will, at one gulp, swallow a salmon 

 of four or five pounds weight ; but if more be taken, and 

 the whole will not go into the stomach, the bird is often 

 Been with the last hanging partly out of the mouth. We 

 have noticed (p. 418,) the proportion of food consumed 

 by a Cormorant, compared with the weight of its body, 

 but its voracity is as nothing in comparison with that of 

 the Nelly-bird, which appears in the course of twenty- 

 four hours to dispose of nearly three times its own weight 

 of food. 



The last genus of this tribe is that of the Petrels, two 

 only of which are well known to us, as frequenters of 

 our shores: the Fulmar, which is nearly as large as a 



