264 



SOOTY ALBATROSS. 



" Length three feet : beak black : irides pale yel- 

 low : at each angle of the eye a nictitating membrane : 

 the prevailing colour of the plumage is brown ; the 

 head and tail inclining to black or soot-colour : for a 

 small space, above, behind and beneath the eye, the 

 feathers are white ; but not on the fore part of it : 

 quills and tail dark-brown, nearly black : the shafts 

 of both white ; and the last pointed in shape : the 

 legs pale brownish lead-colour : ckws black. This 

 species is found throughout the Southern Ocean, 

 within the Antarctic Circle." — Latham. Also breeds 

 in the Island of Tristan de Cunha : is gregarious, 

 many of them building their nests close to each 

 other ^ : the nest is of mud, raised five or six inches, 

 and slightly depressed at the top : when the young 

 birds are more than half grown, they are covered 

 with a whitish down : they stand on their respective 

 hillocks like statues till approached close, when they 

 make a strange clattering with their beaks, and if 

 touched, squirt a deluge of foetid oily fluid from their 

 stomachs. 



* As many as one hundred have been counted within the 

 compass of half an acre. 



