NESTS AAD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. g2\ 



FxUlILY— DIOMEDEID^ ; ALBATROSSES. 



691. DlOMEDE.\ E.KULANS, LiUUKVIS. (617) 



WANDERING ALBATROSS. 



Hgurc. — Gould : Birds o£ Australia, £ol., vol. vii., pi. 38. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 441. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould: Birds o£ Australia (1S48) ; 

 also Handbook, vol. li., p. 432 (1S65) ; Kidder and Coues : 

 Smithsonian Miscell. Coll., vol. xiii., p. (1878) ; BuUer : 



Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 197 (188S) ; VerriU : Trans. 

 Connect. Ac, vol. ix., p. (1895). 



Geographical Distribution. — Seas of South Queensland (occasionally), 

 New South Wales, Victoria, South and West Australia, and Tasmania ; 

 also New Zealand, and in general the Southern, South Pacific, and 

 South Atlantic Oceans. 



Nest. — Clumps of short grass and moss, trodden down, well matted 

 together, and scooped about with earth and feathers into a conical- 

 shaped mound, with an egg cavity at the top about the size and depth 

 of a soup-plate. In colonies on the high laud of cei-tain desolate 

 islands in the southern seas. Dimensions — circumference at the base, 

 about 6 feet ; height 1 to 2 feet or more. The variation in the height 

 may be accounted for, it is supposed, by some of the older nests being 

 used and added to year after year. 



Eggs. — Clutch, one; lengthened in form, or long oval; texture of 

 shell coarse or gi-anular; siu-face rough and without gloss; coloiu-, dull- 

 white, usually with a few dull piu-plish-brown mai-kiugs about the apex. 

 Dimensions in inches of two examples from Campbell Island : 

 (1) 5-15 X 2-9, (2) 4-85 X 3-1. 



Oh.'iervatioii'i. — The well-named Wandering Albatross is the largest 

 and most powerful of great oceanic birds. It is stated to be most 

 abundant in the seas between the 30th and 60th degi'ees of south 

 latitude, which includes the seas of New South Wales, Victoria, South 

 and West Austr-aha, and Tasmania. However, " Wanderers " have 

 been seen as far north as Moreton Bay (Queensland coast), while Mj-. a. 

 Alder, taxidemiist, Brisbane, mentions having received a fine specimen 

 from Southpoi-t, sent by Mr. C. H. E. Lambert. Its expanse of wings 

 measured 94 feet, or two feet longer than a large Wedge-tailed Eagle. 



One of these majestic birds was brought prominently imder notice 

 some years ago by fallmg exhausted and dying upon the beach at 

 Fremantle, West Austraha, with a tin plate fastened roimd its neck 

 inscribed with the mournful intelhgence of the loss of the French ship 

 " Tamaris," and that thii-teen of the siu-vivors were on Crozet Islands. 

 The appearance of this winged messenger on the western coast has been 



