IVESTS AND LGGS OF AVSTRAr.lAN BIRDS. y3;- 



'' I, with three sailors canying my botaniail cases, attempted to scale 

 the Peak ; we had a desperate straggle through long gi-ass aud Penguins, 

 and at last liad to come back beaten, and make for the Phylica patches, 

 where the ground was clear. Thence 1 fought my way through the 

 gniss up to the lower ridge of the island; but, though there were no 

 Penguins on this slope, I never hacl harder work in my Ufe. 



" I had to stop every ten yards or so for breath, the giowth of 

 the gi-ass was so dense. My men lost me and never reached the top. 

 On the simimit 1 found the rest of the party which had come on shore, 

 full of the hiU'dships they had suffered in getting through the " rookeiy,' 

 and looking forward with no pleasure to tiie prospect of going backiagain 

 through it." 



697. — Phcebetria fuliginosa, Gmelin. — (623) 

 SOOTY ALBATROSS. 



Pigur;. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 44. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 453. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Layard ; Saunders : Trans. Roy. 

 Soc, vol. clxviii., p. 165 (1878) ; Kidder and Coues : Smith- 

 sonian Miscell. Coll., vol. xiii., p. 12 (1878); Buller: Birds 

 of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 206 (iSSS) ; Verrill : Trans. 

 Connect. Ac, vol. ix., p. 4,5 (1895). 



Geoyrapliical Distribution. — Seas of New South Wales, Victoria, 

 South and West Australia and Tasmania; also New Zealand and the 

 Southern Ocean in general. 



Nest. — Similar to those of the other Albatrosses ; a small, low, conical 

 mound, constructed of the surrounding earth mixed with grass and other 

 debris. Not m colonies, but separate, on cliffs or I'ocks. Dimensions : 

 about 9 inches in height by 18 inches in diameter at base; egg cavity, 

 about 9 inches across by 1^ inches deep. 



J^yy^- — Clutch, one ; inchned to oval in shape, or more compressed at 

 one end; texture of shell somewhat coarse, but fine compared with the 

 eggs of the other species of Albatrosses ; surface without gloss ; colour, 

 dull white — at fii-st, which soon gets soiled all over by dirt in the nest — 

 with a faint zone or wash of reddish markings round the apex. Dimen- 

 sions in inches of an example from Kerguelen Island: 3-88 x 2-68; of 

 tlu-ee from Macquarie Island: (1) 4-12 x 2-56, (2) 4-0 x 2-62, (3) 

 3-87 X 2-62. 



Observations. — This dusky-colom-ed Albatross is one of the most 

 familiar of its family, and is seen by almost eveiy voyager to and from 

 Australia. 



Goidd states : " The cuneated form of the tail, which is peculiar to 

 this species, together with its shght and small legs and more delicate 

 stracture, clearly indicate that it is the most aerial species of the genus, 



