212 A NATURALIST OX THE " CHALLENGER." 



The Gull (Larus Dorninicanus) nests also on the open ground 

 amongst grass tufts, and the birds breed in considerable flocks 

 together, choosing often some dry place on the lower slopes of a 

 hill-side. I saw two such places where there were a few nests 

 with young and remains of many more. No regular nest is 

 made. The young are brown-coloured. The old birds make a 

 great deal of noise when the young are carried off, but make no 

 attempt to protect them. The brown colour of the young is 

 closely like that of the dead grass in which they lie, and 

 under which they hide on approach of danger. The colour is 

 protective to them; they are, certainly, very difficult to see 

 amongst the grass. 



A species of Cormorant (Phalacrocorax verrucosus), which 

 occurs at the Falkland Islands and at New Zealand, and which 

 is almost certainly the same bird which we saw at Marion 

 Island, is very abundant about Kerguelen. The birds are very 

 handsome, especially the male. The chest is white, the back 

 dark brown and black with green metallic tints upon it. At 

 the base of the bill are large orange warty protuberances. 



The birds build on ledges of the cliffs, or on the higher part of 

 steep declivities leading directly down into the sea. They are 

 especially fond of the horizontal grooves and ledges in the cliffs 

 formed where the red earth bands weather out beneath the 

 harder overlying basalt. They are gregarious in their nesting, 

 and in places small islands or projecting headlands, are stained 

 yellow-white with their droppings, so as to be conspicuous from 

 a distance at sea. 



The birds make a compact neat round nest, raised about 

 a foot from the ground, and composed of mud and lined with 

 grass. 



They lay either two or three eggs, pale blue in colour, and 

 covered with a chalky substance, as are all cormorants' eggs. 

 The young are ugly beasts, covered with intensely black down. 

 When there are three in the nest nearly full-fledged they form an 

 absurd sight, since the nest is then not big enough to hold more 

 than one properly, so the greater part of the bodies of the three 

 young projects out, and then, to crown the absurdity, the mother 

 comes and sits on the top of these three young as big as herself. 



