NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 925 



692. DlOMEDEA ALBATRUS, PalLlS. (618) 



D. Iiror/ii/ura. Temminck. 

 SHORT-TAILED ALBATROSS. 



Figure— Could : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 30. 

 RefereKSe.— Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 444. 

 Prmious Descriptions of £^^i.— Smithsonian Institute ; Campbell : 

 Vxtorian Naturalist (1898). 



Geographical Distribution. — Seas of Northern Territoiy ; also the 

 North Pacific in general. 



y^est^ — None, the egg being laid on the bare ground. 



Eggs. — Clutch, one ; lengthened oval or elliptically inclined in shape ; 

 texture of shell coarse and strong ; siu^ace rough, with just a perceptible 

 trace of gloss ; colour, dirty or yellowish- white, more or less ingrained or 

 stained with earth, and with a nisty-coloured or rufous-brown cap of 

 freckled or blotchy markings on the larger end. In addition, some 



examples have, here and there over the rest of the shell, dull piu-plisli- 

 brown spots. Dimensions in inches: (1) 4-67 x 2-9, (2) 4-65 x 2-95 ; a 

 smaller example in Dr. Charles Ryan's collection measures 426 x 2-63. 



Observations. — Of the fifteen species and varieties of Albatrosses 

 inhabiting the globe, twelve of them fly over tlie ocean wastes of the 

 soutliern seas, therefore most of them occur in Australian or New 

 Zealand waters. The remaining three species are fotmd in the North 

 Pacific Ocean. 



The Short-tailed Albatross, Diomeden alhafrus. belongs to the nor- 

 thern birds, and is supposed to range as far south as the seas of the 

 northern parts of Australia. This fine bird resembles the Wandering 

 Albatross, from which it may be distinguislicd, as Gould points out. 

 by the shortness of its tail and by the tnincated form of the base of 

 the bill. 



There is a halo of romance surroimding this family of great oceanic 

 birds, chiefly, I think, on account of the weirdness or sublime isolation 

 of then' breeding homes. Tliese are, for instance, the island of Tristan 

 d'Acunha. with its mist-enveloped mountain peak 8,000 feet above sea- 

 level ; Prince Edward Island, where snow in midsummer (December") 

 covers its sharply-shaped mountains ; islands of the Crozet Group, 

 towering from the water's edge in great basaltic cliffs and hills to a 

 height of 4,000 feet ; and Kerguelen's Land, or Captain Cook's Island 

 of Desolation (whither two of oiu- field natiu'alists, Messrs. H. Gundersen 

 and Robert Hall, went. Capped with towering conical peaks (6,000 feet 

 high), sheltering a glacier, these islands, although very imposing, are 

 according to navigators, severe and sterile, with a dismal climate — 



