268 



CAMPBELL ISLAND 



birds lay at most one egg every other year. A comparison with the breed- 

 ing habits of another bird which lays very large eggs, though from five 

 to eight a year — namely, the European wild swan — serves to show 

 that a bird with so small a rate of reproduction as the albatross would 

 scarcely survive the struggle for existence but for the very fact that it 

 inhabits so isolated • — and, indeed, protected — a region. 



Besides these two species, three other species of albatrosses are found 

 on Campbell Island: the sooty, the black-browed, and the grey-headed. 

 Most people who have seen albatrosses in the wild agree that for beauty, 

 grace, and charm the sooty albatross bears the prize. The delicate hues 

 and the white crescent behind the eye give it a special attractiveness, 

 which is enhanced by the ease and elegance with which it alights and 

 takes off from its nest, built on ledges of rock, often overlooking the sea. 

 One has scarcely time to see it lift its wings before it merges into the air 

 currents. 



As the remaining two albatrosses breed in large colonies on the nor- 

 thern side of the island, I saw these only in the air. The same applies to 

 the giant petrel, which, owing to its dark colouring, has something of the 

 appearance of the sooty albatross, though it is larger (having a wing-span 

 of over two metres) and not nearly so elegant a glider, as from time to 

 time it flaps its wings. Indeed, it would be grossly unjust to compare this 

 coarse bird with its small, pig-like eyes, which if you approach will 

 squirt a jet of stinking regurgitated oil at you, with the beautiful sooty 

 albatross. 



A family of rock- 

 Iinpper penguins. 

 The young bird is 

 almost hidden by 

 the female. 



