THE ALBATROSS. 251 



and, when on the nest, they will defend themselves 

 for half an hour against an active dog. 



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 re- 

 freshment. 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 seen with the last 

 hanging partly out of the mouth. "We have noticed 

 (vol. ii., p. 220,) 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 fre- 

 quenters of our shores : the Fulmar, which is nearly 

 as large as a Gull, and the Stormy Petrel, better 

 known to sailors by the name of Mother Carey's 



