232 Transactions. — Zoology. 



breeding-grouuds, aud do not commingle except wiieu sail- 

 ing and soaring over the mighty deep, where a community of 

 interest and a common pursuit bring many members of this 

 gi'eat family together. So far as I am aware, their breeding- 

 habits are the same ; but I am glad to be able to exhibit this 

 evening an egg of Diovicdca rcgia, from Campbell Island, along- 

 side of the egg of Diomcdca exulans, from the Auckland Islands. 

 There is a manifest difference in size, as might have been ex- 

 pected. I do not, however, attach any special importance to 

 this, knowing how variable the eggs of the Albatros are as to 

 size. Nor, indeed, can we look for anything very remarkable 

 in the habits of this bird to distinguish it from the common 

 species. There can be no doubt, however, that this royal 

 x\lbatros is the one singled out for special mention in the fol- 

 lowing passage in my "Birds of New Zealand " (vol. ii., p. 195) : 

 " On my last voyage from the Antipodes, by direct steamer by 

 way of Cape Horn, I made careful observations on the 

 albatroses that followed us. During the first few days from 

 the New Zealand coast (middle of March), and in lat. 56° S., 

 some twenty or more of D. exulans were in daily attend- 

 ance. Nearl}' the whole of these were in the dark plumage 

 characteristic of the young birds, the foreneck, breast, and 

 upper parts of the body being of various shades of chocolate- 

 brown, and the face, throat, and abdomen pure-white. In 

 some the brown on the breast was very pale, and in one or 

 more of them was reduced to a mere cloud of speckled mark- 

 ings. One bird, however, and the only one in the white body- 

 plumage mentioned above, was conspicuous among the group. 

 It had the head, neck, back, and all the under-parts of the 

 purest white ; and the upper surface of the wings blackish- 

 brown, with a broad white patch at the humeral flexure. It 

 was a bird of considerable size— larger, indeed, than any of the 

 others — and seemed to take much wider sweeps over the 

 ocean, and often approached so near to the stern of our ship 

 that I could detect the pinky flesh-colour of the beak. Its tail 

 was white, with what appeared to be a terminal band of black. 

 In long. 126°, the weather being bitterly cold, all the alba- 

 troses had left us. But three days later, lat. 56° 22' S., long. 

 107° 9' W., a pair of young birds (in brown plumage) came up 

 to us about noon; and on the following day (March 21\ with 

 a stiff gale blowing, an old one appeared in the midst of a flock 

 of petrels, but did not remain very long. The last appearance 

 of this species was on the 22nd March, lat. 56°, long. 88°, when 

 two birds (one of them in the young plumage) joined us about 

 noon and followed our ship till dark. At this time we were 

 steaming before the wind at a great rate, our log having 

 registered a run of 320 miles for the previous twenty-fonr 

 hours." 



