At certain seasons of the year they retire to breed on rocky islands, as the Crozettes, Marion Islands, Tristan d’Acunha, &c. Captain Carmichael[140] describes their manner of breeding, as seen by himself on the Island of Tristan d’Acunha:—“As we walked down the mountain on our return,” he observes, “we passed among flocks of Albatrosses, engaged in the process of incubation, or tending their young. There are four species of them that breed on the island, none of which hatches more than one egg at a time;—the _Diomedea spadicea_, _exulans_, _chlororynchus_, and _fuliginosa_. The two former give themselves no trouble in constructing their nest, merely choosing a dry spot of ground, and giving it a slight concavity, to prevent the egg from rolling out of its place. The egg is white, very large, and of a peculiar shape, being uncommonly long in proportion to its diameter, and equally thick, or nearly so, at both ends. “The black Albatrosses (_D. fuliginosa_) are at this season (January) gregarious, building their nests close to each other. In the area of half an acre I reckoned upwards of a hundred. They are constructed of mud, raised five or six inches, and slightly depressed at the top. At the time we passed, the young birds were more than half grown, and covered with a whitish down. There was something extremely grotesque in the appearance of these birds, standing, on their respective hillocks, motionless like so many statues, until we approached close to them, when they set up the strangest clattering with their beaks, and if we touched them, squirted on us a deluge of fetid oily fluid from the stomach. “The _D. chlororynchus_ builds its solitary nest in some sheltered corner, selecting, in particular, the small drains that draw the water off 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 around 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 these birds nourish their young by disgorging the contents of their stomach. They are never observed to carry any article of food in their bill: those matters indeed, from which they derive the chief part of their sustenance, the blubber of dead whales, seals, and sea lions, would melt away if carried in the bill to any distance. We could not help admiring the utter unconsciousness of danger displayed by them on our approach: they never showed the least disposition to move out of our way: even when kicked, or pulled off their nests, they made not the smallest show of resistance; but quietly returned to their post, or stood still until we passed on.