20 BIRDS OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



quite black, or very dark-browD, excepting the under parts of wings, 

 throat, and cbeekvS, which are white, more or less mottled with black. 

 Tail very short in proportion to the size of the body. 

 Tarsus and foot white, with pale-blue tint, scutellated. 

 Claws white. No rudiment of hind toe. 

 Stomach membranous, filled with an oily fluid. 

 Uggs single, white. 



None of these birds had shown themselves in the neighborhood of our 

 camp until December 17, when Mr. Train captured and brought in the 

 specimen No. 181, which he had carried more than two miles. It was 

 found near an old nest, seemingly about to rebuild it, but no egg was 

 found until December 30. On the 2d of January, the steam-launch 

 of the Monongahela carried me several miles down the beach to the low 

 strip which connects Prince of Wales Foreland with the mainland. 

 Here I saw very many albatrosses nesting upon hillocks, built up some 

 two feet, or more, from the ground. The nests are composed mostly of 

 grass, and, being of different heights, seemed to have been used again, 

 and added to, year after year. 1 counted twenty-three birds in sight at 

 one time, each perched upon its nest. Being conspicuous by the white- 

 ness of their plumage, and rarely very near together, they rather remind 

 one of the whitewashed cairns set up by surveyors. Driven from the 

 nests, and compelled to walk, they look not unlike overgrown geese. 

 The distribution of their weight compels them to stretch out their necks 

 horizontally, and to walk with a widely-swaying gait. Two approached 

 each other as I was watching them, and went through with some very 

 odd manoeuvres. One raised its head and spread out its wings as if to 

 embrace the other, which remained with wings folded. Both then clat- 

 tered their bills, and touched them together, first on one side and then 

 on the other. This manoeuvre was repeated several times. Phcehetria 

 fiiliginosa has the same trick of touching bills with its mate and clat- 

 tering the mandibles about pairing-time; but I have never seen them 

 approach one another with outspread wings. All of the nesting alba- 

 trosses that I saw, without exception, showed a slight pinkish discolora- 

 tion of the neck, as if a blood-stain had been washed out, usually on 

 the left side, and extending downward from the region of the ear. 



They are dull birds, making but little attempt to defend their eggs 

 beyond loudly clattering their bills. The sound thus produced is louder 

 than would be expected, owing to the resonance of the considerable 

 cavity included by the mandibles. It is very like the sound of a tin 



