NESTS AND EGGS OF AOSTKAUAiV BIRDS. g3g 



movements, she will utter her cry, and thus reveal, her situation. If 

 anyone goes near her she assumes a rather formidable attitude, and 

 niffling up the feathers of the neck, snaps fiercely and loudly with her 

 beak at the intiiidrr, the noise resembling that made by a large dog in 

 catching flies. But notwithstanding her menacing gestures, the egg 

 can be secured (if it be desired) without displacing her fi'om the nest. 

 A pocket handkerchief presented to her with the left hand, or a hat 

 placed gently on her head, will completely engross her attention while 

 the egg is being abstracted from beneath her with the right ; and she 

 will afterwards remain in the nest complacently watching her visitors 

 retreat." 



Nearly a dozen nests were taken by the EngUsh Expedition. A 

 bird was killed on the 23rd October that probably would have laid that 

 night. Another female subsequently laid in the same nest. A nestling 

 about a ^week old was secxu'ed about the beginning of February. On 

 the 24th October, members of the American Expedition captui'ed two 

 Duskv Albatrosses on nests, but there were no eggs. The birds' loud 

 Peacock-like scream of " pee-aiT " is believed to be peculiar to the 

 breeding season. On the 2nd November one egg and the parents were 

 secui-ed, the male being perceptibly the larger of the two birds. Subse- 

 quently one or two other nests were observed. 



The illustration of the " Sooty Albatross on Nest," from the out-of- 

 the-way Kerguelen Land, by Mr. Robert Hall, makes a imique and 

 appropriate pair with the " Cape Petrels on their Nest." 



