16 Mr. K. Hall on the 



about 2 inches deep, as all was sim|)Iy matted with the 

 natural short grass, and ajjpeared as if merely placed upon 

 it. Many nests are raised \\ feet. Some have well-trimmed, 

 sides of earth and are conical, but they arc in the minority. 

 Nests of last year still remained among those of the present, 

 and some of tiiose tenanted were simply additions to those 

 of the past season. The nests may be within two yards of 

 each other to the number of three or four, but generally 

 they are many paces apart, and continue in a line along the 

 higher grounds of the beach. 



On the 15th of February I observed some 30 nests, all 

 with half-incubated eggs. The first fresh eggs were noted 

 on New Year's day in a rookery of 25 nests, but several 

 nests were still without eggs on the 3rd of January. Two 

 of the sitting birds photographed were not mature. In 

 one case the back was barred, and in the other the wing- 

 coverts were far from being white. I observed sitting birds 

 in three stages of plumage, in what I would be inclined to 

 think the second, third, and fourth years of age. The skin 

 prepared by us does not quite agree with Mr. Salvin's 

 description in his key (Cat. B. xxv. p. 440), for the scapulars 

 are not ''faintly banded," while the only flush of pink on 

 the bird was over the left eye, and even this was scarcely 

 visible. The above-mentioned skin I presented to the Hon. 

 Walter Rothschild for his museum. 



On the 15th of January an egg was taken from a nest, 

 and eight days later I saw the bird still sitting on its nest. 

 It seemed a long business. When eggs are taken from 

 the nests, the birds quietly get on again and continue to 

 sit. One egg weighed 1 11)., and measured 5*25 inches by 

 3-20 inches, and this Avas tlic largest found. A smaller egg 

 was broken in the nest by one of the ship's crew, and forty- 

 eight hours later I observed that the bird was still sitting 

 with its feathers damped and soiled. The date was written 

 on this egg, and it may remain a long while in the nest. 

 We found the male bird taking part in the incubation. 

 On the bird killed and preserved on February 14th several 

 lice remained alive in the plumage, until they were bottled 

 on March 23rd. 



