FEB. 1769 ALBATROSS 



1st February. Killed Diomedea antarctica, Procellaria 

 lugens and turtur. The first, or black-billed albatross, is much 

 like the common one, but differs in being scarcely half as 

 large, and having a bill entirely black. Procellaria lugens, the 

 southern shearwater, differs from the common kind in being 

 smaller and of a darker colour on the back, but is easily 

 distinguished by the flight, which is heavy, and by two 

 fasciae or streaks of white, which are very conspicuous when 

 it flies, under its wings. Procellaria turtur, Mother Carey's 

 dove, is of the petrel kind, about the size of a Barbary dove, 

 of a light silvery blue upon the back, which shines beauti- 

 fully as the bird flies. Its flight is very swift and it re- 

 mains generally near the surface of the water. More or less 

 of these birds have been seen very often since we left the 

 latitude of Falkland's Island, where in a gale of wind we 

 saw immense quantities of them. 



3rd. Shot Diomedea exulans, an albatross, or alcatrace, 

 much larger than those seen to the northward of the Straits 

 of Le Maire, and often quite white on the back between the 

 wings, though certainly the same species ; D. antarctica, 

 lesser black -billed albatross; D. profuga, lesser albatross, 

 with a party-coloured bill differing from the last in few 

 things except the bill, the sides of which were yellow, with 

 black between them. 



Atk. I had been unwell these three or four days, and 

 to-day was obliged to keep the cabin with a bilious attack, 

 which, although quite slight, alarmed me a good deal, as 

 Captain Wallis had such an attack in the Straits of Magellan, 

 which he never got the better of throughout the whole 

 voyage. 



5th. I was well enough to eat part of the albatrosses 

 shot on the 3rd ; they were so good that everybody com- 

 mended and ate heartily of them, although there was fresh 

 pork upon the table. To dress them, they are skinned over- 

 night, and the carcases soaked in salt water until morning, 

 then parboiled, and, the water being thrown away, stewed well 

 with very little water, and when sufficiently tender served 

 up with savoury sauce. 



