20 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



however, they will have to stand until further investigation throws 

 more light on the subject. 



Mr. G. E. Verrill (1895) has described the yellow-nosed albatross 

 which breeds on Gough Island, in the South Atlantic Ocean, as a 

 new species under the name Tkalassogeron eximius, which he says 

 most closely resembles T. chlororhynchns. Other authorities differ as 

 to whether this bird is nearer to chlororhynchus or to culminatus. 

 Apparently it is very close to both and perhaps all three may eventu- 

 ally prove to be identical, as the slightly differentiated characters may 

 prove to be age, seasonal, or individual variations. There arc also 

 several other species of Thalmsogeron^ which seem to have a more or 

 less doubtful status and which may eventually be lumped together, 

 when this group is better understood. 



Nesting. — Assuming that the Gough Island bird may be this 

 species, I quote what Mr. Verrill (1895) has to say about it: 



Concerning the "molly mokes " Mr. Comer has the following notes : " There 

 Is but one kind, which are known as blueheads, on Gough Island. Back and 

 heads light blue, top of wings dark, white breasts, top of beak yellow, while 

 the lower part is black, feet white. On this island they lay separately, keeping 

 well apart and scattered about the island, among tussocks and brakes, more 

 like the albatross {D. exulmis) but at South Georgia and most of the islands 

 they build close to each other in rookeries. At Gough Island they commence 

 laying the 20th of September. They lay but one egg. If robbed they do not 

 lay again, but leave the nest and do not return until another season. Nests 

 are built the same as the albatross (D. exulans), only smaller." In his journal 

 at Gough Island, on September 7, Mr. Comer notes that " the molly mokes have 

 commenced to make their nests." Again, on September 27, that he " got a few 

 molly moke eggs," and from then on he frequently speaks of taking their eggs. 



Eggs. — Of the eggs he says : 



The shape of the 75 eggs is comparatively pretty uniform, as a rule more 

 elongate and nearer elliptical than the following species, most of them approach- 

 ing an elliptical ovoid. Several are nearly perfect ellip.soids. The texture and 

 surface of the shell is mucli like that of D. exulans, but finer and smoother 

 in proportion to their smaller size. The ground color is white, generally with a 

 very slight grayish or dusky and sometimes reddish tinge, and the wliole egg 

 is covered with minute specks of a reddish brown, darker tlian in /). exulans; 

 in some they are even dark brown. These specks vary in number and are, for 

 the most part, in the small pits and depressions on the surface of the shell. 

 About one-third of the eggs are otherwise unmarked, so tliat at a little dis- 

 tance they simply have a dusky appearance. In the other two-thirds the specks 

 become larger and thicker toward the larger end, often forming a more or less 

 perfect zone about it, in other cases they run together and form a blotch which 

 is, in some, quite heavy and conspicuous. As in D. exulans, the color is very 

 superficial and many have larger spots or small blotches, unevenly distributed, 

 that scale off when very dry, and like the eggs of the large albatross, most of 

 them, when held to the light, show spots and blotches of color in the shell. 

 Three are quite different from the rest in markings, two being heavily streaked 

 over the whole egg with reddish brown, thickest at the large end.- The other is 

 streaked, not quite so heavily, with pale lilac, which is not so superficial. 



