e navigators of the south seas
understand places selected by various sea-fowls, where they in common
build their nests, lay their eggs, and bring up their young. Here they
assemble in immense masses, and in the laying out and construction of
these places, exhibit great caution, judgment, and industry.

When a sufficient number have assembled on the shore, they appear first
to hold a consultation, and then to set about executing the great
purpose for which they have come together. First, they choose out a
level spot of sufficient extent, often of four or five acres, near the
beach. In this they avoid ground that is too stony, which would be
dangerous to their eggs. Next, they deliberate on the plan of their
future camp, after which they lay out distinctly a regular
parallelogram, offering room enough for the brother and sisterhood,
somewhere from one to five acres. One side of the place is bounded by
the sea, and is always left open for entrance and exit; the other three
sides are inclosed with a wall of stones and roots.

These industrious feathered workers first of all remove from the place
all obstacles to their design; they take up the stones with their bills
and carry them to the boundaries to compose the wall. Within this wall
they build a perfectly smooth and even foot-path some six or eight feet
wide, which is used by day as a public promenade, and by night for the
back and forward march of the sentinels.

After they have in this way completed their embankments on the three
landward sides, they lay out the remaining part of the interior into
equal little quadrangles, separated from each other by narrow
foot-paths, crossing at right angles. In each crossing of these paths an
albatross builds his nest, and in the middle of each quadrangle, a
penguin, so that every albatross is surrounded by four penguins, and
every penguin has albatross on four sides as neighbors. In this way the
whole place is regularly occupied, and only at some distance are places
left free for other sea-fowl, such as the green comorant and the
so-called Nelly.

Though the penguin and albatross live so near and in such intimacy they
not only build their nests in very different fashions, but the penguin
plunders the nest of its friend whenever it has an opportunity. The nest
of the penguin is a simple hollow in the ground, just deep enough to
keep its eggs from rolling out, while the albatross raises a little hill
of earth, grass, and muscles