750 THE SKUA. 



companion in ^leir rapacious maws. These birds may under some circumstances be 

 dangerous to human beings, as they have been observed to swoop upon the head of a 

 man who Iiad fallen overboard ; and their long powerful beaks are fearful weapons when 

 urged by those huge pinions. 



In spite of the strong oily flavour of the Albatros, some portions of it can be eaten if 

 properly prepared, and the long bones of the wings are in great request for pipe-stems. 

 When the skin and flesh are removed from the head of the Albatros, a large depression 

 is found just over tlie eyes, which in a good skull now before me exactly accommodates 

 my bent thumb. This cavity is filled during life with a gland, the use of which is 

 dubious. Dr. Bennett dissected several of the glands and found them to be formed " of 

 a hard granulated substance, and pale colour, consisting of numerous distinct minute oval 

 bodies, and on being cut, it is found to be abundantly nourished by blood-vessels ; the 

 nerves supplying it came from the minute foramina seen on the floor of the cavity, 

 and are distributed in and about the substance of the gland." In a dissection in the 

 College of Surgeons, a duct is demonstrated to lead towards the nasal outlet on the upper 

 mandible. 



The Albatros makes its home on the lofty precipices of Tristan dAcunha, the 

 Crozettes, the Marion Islands, and other similar localities. Mr. Earl, who visited their 

 nesting-places, writes in forcible language of the strange and weird-like scene. " A death- 

 like stillness prevailed in these high regions, and to my ear our voices had a strange 

 unnatural echo, and I fancied our forms appeared gigantic, whilst the air was piercingly 

 cold. The prospect was altogether sublime, and filled the mind with awe. The huge 

 Albatros here appeared to dread no interloper or enemy, for their young were on the 

 ground completely uncovered and the old ones were stalking round them. They lay but 

 one egg on tlie ground, where they make a kind of nest by scraping the earth round it ; 

 the young is entirely white, and covered with a woolly down, which is very beautiful. 

 As we approached, they snapped their bills with a very quick motion, making a great 

 noise ; this and the throwing up the contents of the stomach are the only means of 

 offence and defence they seem to possess. I again visited the mountain about five months 

 afterwards, when I found the young Albatroses still sitting in their nests, and they had 

 never moved away from them." 



The nests of the Sooty Albatros {Diomedea falgmoso) are built in similar localities, 

 but are rather better made, consisting of mud raised some five or six inches, with a slight 

 depression on tlie top. The Yellow-beaked Albatros {Diomedea cMororhynclms) makes 

 a still more elaborate nest, the heap of mud being about one foot in height, with a 

 kind of little trench round the base. All these species were quite undismayed at the 

 presence of human beings, having to be kicked out of the way before they would allow 

 their visitors to pass, and then returning to their posts with perfect composure. Some of 

 them, however, retaliated after their own fashion, by squirting oil out of their mouths upon 

 the clothes of their disturbers. With this oily substance the parents feed their young. 



Captain Carmichael, who visited these islands, tried a curious experiment with an 

 Albatros, with a very unexpected result. " We had the curiosity to take one of them 

 by the point of the wings and fiing it over the rock ; yet, though it had several hundred 

 feet of clear fall, it never recovered itself, but dropped down like a stone." 



The Wandering Albatros is rather variable in plumage, but in general the head, neck, 

 back, and wings are grey or brown, and the rest of the plumage white. 



The large family of the Gulls is here represented by four species, all of which are 

 among our British birds. 



The Skua is a large, fierce, and powerful bird, tyrannizing in a shameful manner over 

 its weaker relations, and robbing them without mercy. It feeds mostly on fish, but prefers 

 taking advantage of the labours of others to working honestly for its own living. As the 

 lesser Gulls are busily fishing, the Skuas hover about the spot, and as soon as a poor Gull 

 has caught a fish, and is going off to his family, down comes the Skua upon him with 

 threatening beak and rocking wings, and when the victim drops his burden, to escape 

 with greater facility, the Skua darts after the falling fish, and snaps it up before it reaches 



