20 
except during the breeding season. They 
lay few eggs : feed their young by disgorg- 
ing into their beaks the half-digested oily 
substance of fish, which is their chief and 
almost only support. They have a singular 
property, of which persons who seek 
their nests ought to be well aware : when 
attacked, they, whether from fear, or the 
hope of defending themselves, discharge 
the oil with which their stomach is filled ; 
they spout it in the face of the fowler, and 
as their nests are usually lodged on rocky 
shores, itf the clefts of lofty precipices ; 
ignorance of these facts have cost some 
adventurers their lives. 
