THE WANDERING ALBATROS. 
4 05 
The materials of the nest are equally calculated for conceal- 
ment, consisting of straw, grass, little sticks, and dried leaves, 
all being jumbled together with such ‘artless art/ that even 
when a nest is seen, its real nature often escapes the discoverer. 
If the same materials were seen in a branch at any height from 
the ground they would at once attract attention, but in the 
position which they occupy they look like a mass of loose debris 
that has been blown by the wind and arrested by the foliage 
among which it has lodged. 
The eggs are equally inconspicuous, being dull olive brown, 
without a spot or streak. After they are laid, the lively song of 
the Nightingale becomes less and less frequent, while after the 
young are hatched, the bird is silent until the next season. The 
Nightingale is as anxious to conceal itself as its nest, and 
seldom intentionally shows its brown plumage, though it will 
sing within six feet of a listener who will remain quiet. In the 1 
spring the bird seems as if it must sing, no matter who may be 
near, and its spirit of rivalry is so great, that the ‘ jug-jug ’ of 
one nightingale is sure to set singing all the others within 
hearing. 
The Wandering Albatros \Diontedea exulans ), the giant 
of the petrel tribe, makes its nest after a peculiar fashion. 
It chooses the summit of lofty precipices near the sea, and its 
nest may be found most plentifully in Tristan d’Acunha and 
the Marion Islands. The Albatros is lord of the country, and 
no other living being seems to intrude upon its nesting place. 
So completely do the birds feel themselves masters of the 
situation, that if a human being penetrates to their haunts, 
they quietly move about as if he were non-existent, and do not 
appear to take the least notice of him. On such elevated 
positions the cold is necessarily intense, but the Albatros cares 
not for the cold, and brings up its white-coated young in a 
temperature that few human beings like to endure longer than 
needful. 
No particular bed seems necessary for the egg, for the mother 
bird simply deposits it on the bare ground, and then scrapes 
