644 CLASS AVES. 



them ; and their resource is then to throw up, with great 

 effort, the aliments with which their stomach is surcharged. 



Towards the end of September the albatross constructs its 

 nest of clay on the ground on the coasts, and its height is 

 about three feet. The female lays there a great number of 

 eggs, more bulky than those of a goose, nearly five inches 

 long, and white with black spots towards the thick end ; those 

 eggs, the yolk of which does not grow hard by boiling, are 

 good eating. 



The flesh of the albati'oss is hard and ill-flavoured. Ma- 

 riners, however, contrive to render it eatable when they are 

 in want of fresh provisions, by taking off the skin, and suffer- 

 ing the body to soak in salt water for four and twenty hours, 

 then boiling it, and eating it with some piquant sauce. The 

 Kamtschatkadales, who also never eat of this bird except in 

 times of dearth, make several articles of the wing bones. 



After these generalities, the species, individually, all of 

 which, except the wandering albatross, are sufficiently doubt- 

 ful, merit no farther notice. 



The genus Larus, of which our author has made three 

 subdivisions, we shall consider here generally under our Eng- 

 lish name of Gulls. 



The head of these birds is gross, and their neck is short. 

 In a state of repose they have a melancholy air, their neck 

 sunk back, and their port ignoble. Their plumage being 

 close and thick, they are good swimmers ; but they are almost 

 continually on the wing, and can brave the wildest tempest. 

 Buffon terms these clamorous and voracious birds, the vul- 

 tures of the sea, for they feed upon carcasses of every de- 

 scription, which are either floating on its surface, or cast 

 upon its shores. They swarm upon the borders of the sea, 

 where they seek fish, either fresh or corrupted, flesh in the 

 same states, worms, or mollusca, all of which their stomach 

 is capable of digesting. Spread throughout the entire globe, 



