It is difficult to conjecture the use of this gland, as those possessing it have also a lacrymal gland in the usual situation. I could not observe at this time, either in the Albatross, or any other oceanic or aquatic bird, any excretory duct. Cuvier, in his _Comparative Anatomy_, (vol. ii. p. 440,) thus alludes to it: “Les oiseaux du genre des canards, et d’autres oiseaux d’eaux et de rivage, ont un corps glanduleux, dur, grenu, qui occupe toute la partie supérieure de l’orbite et se contourne en arrière pour suivre la courbure de l’œil. Dans le morillon (_Anas fuligula_) il est si large qu’il touche son correspondant par dessus le crâne. Ce corps paroît tenir lieu de la glande lacrymale: _je n’en ai cependant pas encore vu le canal excréteur_.” In July, 1832, during a passage to New South Wales, a capture of an Albatross afforded me an opportunity of again dissecting this gland, with the view of ascertaining, if possible, whether an excretory duct actually existed. I found the gland of a hard granulated substance and pale colour, consisting of numerous, distinct, minute oval bodies, and on being cut it is found to be abundantly nourished by blood-vessels; the nerves supplying it came from the minute foramina seen on the floor of the cavity, and are distributed in and about the substance of the gland. These glandular bodies are placed in two rather semicircular depressions, (one over each orbit,) to which the form of the gland corresponds, accurately filling up those cavities, and bound down firmly by a strong and dense fascia: the distance between these cavities, or depressions, (in the specimen now under examination) was three-eighths of an inch; the external margin of this cavity is very narrow, partly cartilaginous, partly bony; the gland does not project over the outer margin, a distance of one-eighth of an inch being left beyond it. Not finding any duct when I came to the anterior portion of the gland, which was visible, I commenced a further research, by laying open the bony plate which covered the olfactory part of the upper mandible, continuing the destruction of this portion of the bill, on one side, to the nostril. I then found that the gland was continued for a short distance further, under the bone, towards the nostril, situated rather above and anterior to the nasal portion of the orbit. On pursuing my dissection further, I found a nerve (a branch of the fifth pair?) passing down the thin bony plate, at the interior part of the upper mandible; this I traced until it entered the skull, and thus found it had no connexion with the gland, as its first appearance led me to suspect; but close to and under it was another appearance, which could be distinctly traced, emerging from the gland; it was about a line, or rather more, in thickness, and, tracing its course, I found it proceeded in a straight direction, and then had an almost imperceptible inclination upwards, until I lost it among the