TRISTAN DA CUNHA. 131 



when thus bent on nesting, to have forgotten almost the use of 

 their wings. 



Captain Carmichael, in his account of Tristan da Cunha, 

 relates how he threw one of the birds over a cliff and saw it fall 

 like a stone without attempting to flap, and yet these birds will 

 soar after a ship over the sea as cleverly as any other albatross ; 

 indeed, the same peculiarity occurs in the case of the large 

 albatross when nesting. 



When bullied with a stick or handled on the nests, the birds 

 snap their bills rapidly together with a defiant air, but they 

 may be pushed or poked off with great ease. Usually a pair is 

 to be seen at each nest, and then by standing near a short time 

 one may see a curious courtship going on. 



The male stretches his neck out, erects his wings and feathers 

 a bit, and utters a series of high-pitched rapidly repeated sounds, 

 not unlike a shrill laugh. As he does this he puts his head 

 close up against that of the female. 



Then the female stretches her neck straight up, and turning 

 up her beak utters a similar sound, and rubs bills with the male 

 again. The same manoeuvre is constantly repeated. 



The albatrosses make their nests sometimes right in the 

 middle of a penguin road, but the two kinds of birds live 

 perfectly happily together. I saw no fighting, though, small 

 as the penguins are, I think they could easily drive out the 

 Mollymauks if they wished it. 



The ground of the rookery is bored in all directions by the 

 holes of Prions and petrels, which thus live under the penguins. 

 Their holes were not so numerous in the rookery at Inacces- 

 sible Island as here. The holes add immensely to the difficul- 

 ties of traversing a rookery, since as one is making a rush, the 

 ground is apt to give way, and give one a fall into the black 

 filthy mud amongst a host of furious birds, which have then full 

 chance at one's eyes and face. 



Besides the mollymauks and petrels, one or two pairs of 

 Skuas had nests on a few mounds of earth in the rookery. How 

 these mounds came there I could not understand. 



The Skuas' eggs are closely like those of the lesser black- 

 backed gull, and two in number. The birds swooped about our 



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