THE ALBATROSS. 415 



amusing scene to watch a group of these birds, a dozen or 

 more, assembled together on the side of a hill, grotesquely 

 waddling about, selecting their mates; this being settled, 

 they dispersed, and each pair fixed upon a spot for the nest, 

 which consisted of a mound of soil, intermingled with 

 withered 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, they 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, weigh- 

 ing 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 spa- 

 dicea), 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 seen with the last 

 hanging partly out of the mouth. We have noticed (p. 390) 

 the proportion of food consumed by a Cormorant, compared 

 with the weight of the 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 



