MARION ISLAND. 1 



— o 



i O 



course, seen in his full glory and best breeding plumage ; the tails 

 and the wings of both birds are, of course, dark. The albatrosses 

 one meets with at sea are most frequently birds in young plumage 

 or bad condition, and have a rather dirty draggled look. 



The brooding birds are very striking objects, sitting raised up 

 on the nest, commonly with the male bird beside it. They sit 

 fast on the nest when approached, but snap their bills savagely 

 together, making thus a loudish noise. They will bite hold of 

 a stick when it is pushed up against their bills. They need a 

 good deal of bullying with the stick before they stand up in the 

 nest and let one see whether they have got an egg there or no. 



Then the egg is seen to appear slowly out of the pouch in 

 which it is held during incubation. It is nearly five inches long, 

 or about as big as a swan's, and is white with specks of red at 

 the large end. Only one egg is laid. In most of the nests there 

 were fresh eggs ; in some, however, nearly full grown young 

 birds. 



At Campbell Island, of the Campbell and Auckland group, 

 the young of Diomedea exulans were found just breaking the 

 shell in February by an exploring party.* Charles Gooclridge, 

 who was one of a sealing party on the Prince Edward Islands in 

 1820, and spent two years on the Crozets, says, that the albatrosses 

 there lay at about Christmas, and that the period of incubation is 

 about three months. (?) The young, he says, were wing-feathered, 

 and good to eat about May, and did not fly off till December.f 



The young albatrosses are dark grey in plumage. They snap 

 their bills, like the old ones, to try and frighten away enemies. 



The old birds never attempt to fly, though persistently ill- 

 treated or driven heavily waddling over the ground. Very many 

 were killed by the sailors that their wing-bones might be taken 

 out for pipe stems, and their feet skinned to make tobacco 

 pouches. The old males tried to run away when frightened, but 

 never even raised their wino;s. 



* "Notes on the Geology of the Outlying Islands of New Zealand. 

 Reported by Dr. Hector, F.E.S." Trans. N. Zealand Inst., Vol. II, 1869, 

 p. 75. 



t " Narrative of a Voyage to the South Seas, and eight years' residence 

 in Van Diemen's Land," p. 35, by C. M. Goodridge. London, Hamilton 

 and Adams, 1833. 



