YELLOW-NOSED ALBATROSS. 97 



Naturalist," when "placed upon tlie deck, hopped in the same 

 manner as a Gull, aiding their progress by their wings; they would 

 utter a loud hoarse cry when attempts were made to stop them." 



In Captain Carmichael's interesting "Description of the Island of 

 Tristran du Cunha," "Linnean Transactions," vol. xii, p. 469, the 

 breeding habits of four species of Albatross are recorded, and it is 

 worthy of note that those habits, at least of three of them, are 

 essentially diiferent, although the birds are so closely allied. D. 

 exulans and D. spacUcea make no nest, merely laying the egg in a 

 depression of the ground. D. fuUginosa, the "Sooty Albatross," is 

 gregarious at the breeding-season; Captain C. saw no less than one 

 hundred nests in the area of half an acre. " They are constructed 

 of mud, raised five or six inches, and slightly depressed at the top." 

 D. chlororhyncos , on the contrary, "builds its solitary nest in some 

 sheltered corner, selecting the small drains that draw the water oiF 

 the land into the ravines. There it runs up its nest to the height 

 of ten or twelve inches, of a cylindrical form, with a small ditch 

 round the base." 



"A curious circumstance, with regard to this bird, is that when 

 irritated the feathers of its cheeks are separated, so as to display a 

 beautiful stripe of naked orange skin running from the corners of 

 the mouth towards the back of the head." 



All the species lay but one eg^. 



The following is Latham's description: — "Length three feet; breadth 

 seven. Bill four inches long, hooked at the end, but not very stout; 

 the colour of it is black, except the upper ridge, which is yellow 

 the whole length quite to the tip, where it is hooked; the base of 

 the under mandible is also yellow; irides brown; the head is grey; 

 between the bill and the eyes is an obscure black spot, just over 

 the eye a dusky one; the hind part of the neck dusky, the lower 

 part white; back, scapulars, and wings dusky blue black; rump and 

 under part of the body white; the tail dusky; the legs are pale 

 yellowish white; the fore part of them and the webs dusky." 



My figure is taken from Gould's Birds of Australia. 



It has also been figured by Latham, Syn., vol. iii, p. 309; and 

 Temminck et Laugier, pi. col. 468. 



VOL. v. 



