CHAP. xii.J ALBATROSS BATTUES. 423 



three miles in length, and three to six feet wide. This 

 arrangement is very convenient in every respect. The 

 birds can easily hold a conversation across this street, 

 and the sailors can walk up the centre of it, beat them 

 out of their nests, and march off with the good eggs, 

 thoughtfully leaving behind two or three bad ones, as 

 an inducement for the inhabitants to return to their 

 homes after the invasion. 



" After we procured about six or seven tons of eggs, 

 killed a good many seal, shot a number of rabbits, and 

 strung our rigging with Geese, we fired a twelve-pounder 

 carronade for curiosity, to see how many birds would 

 rise in sight. We got up our anchor, and left this 

 decidedly capital place for food and fun."* 



Our next quotation is even more graphic. 



"During the voyage, an occasional battue of the 

 Albatrosses and other marine birds, which abound in 

 the high latitudes between the Cape of Good Hope and 

 Van Diemen's Land, beguiled the leisure time. These 

 battues partook of shooting and fishing, for sometimes 

 we baited large hooks with bits of pork, and caught the 

 gigantic birds by the beak. I remember one day seeing 

 twenty -eight live Albatrosses on the deck together, many 

 of them measuring twelve feet from tip to tip of the 

 wings. Once on the deck, they cannot escape, as they 

 have great difficulty in first rising on the wing. Some 

 of us stored the white feathers, supposing from Nayti's 

 (a native) account that they would be highly valuable 

 in New Zealand; others made tobacco-pouches of the 

 web feet, or pipe stems of the wing bones ; the naturalist 

 made preparations of skeletons and skins to keep his 



* Coulter's Adventures in the Pacific, p 23. 



