370 THE ALBATROSS. 



we passed, the young birds were more than half 

 grown, and covered with a whitish down. There 

 was something extremely grotesque in the ap- 

 pearance of these birds, standing, on their re- 

 spective hillocks, motionless like so many statues, 

 until we approached close to them, when they 

 set up the strangest clattering with their beaks, 

 and if we touched them, squirted on us a deluge 

 of fetid oily fluid from the stomach. 



" The D. chlororynchus 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 ten or twelve inches, of a cylin- 

 drical form, with a small ditch around 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 corners 

 of the mouth towards the back of the head. All 

 these birds nourish their young by disgorging 

 the contents of their stomach. They are never 

 observed to carry any article of food in their bill : 

 those matters indeed, from which they derive 

 the chief part of their sustenance, the blubber of 

 dead whales, seals, and sea lions, would melt 

 away if carried in the bill to any distance. We 

 could not help admiring the utter unconscious- 



