508 TransacUons. — Miscellaneous. 



nial aster, with its delicate tints, forms one of the charms of 

 this richly-endowed island, just as its numerous allies do in 

 the high alps of New Zealand. 



The smaller species of Pleurophjjlluvi was plentiful ; a rare 

 fern, a Geum, Plantago aucklandica — a handsome ally of the 

 common plantain, here only found on high land — and a small 

 cress, said to be a rare plant, were in plenty on the storm-beaten 

 heights. Mosses, small rushes, lichens, and other alpine plants 

 grew on and near the rocks. Descending a little way towards 

 the ocean, we came upon the albatroses. They are very nu- 

 merous. A great many of them were sitting ; others were 

 billing and cooing ; others seemed to have no particular busi- 

 ness on hand ; others were young ones waiting to be turned 

 off the old nests ; others, again, were turned off, but had not 

 yet learned to fly. An albatros nest is much the shape of the 

 old-fashioned dairy-churns of our early youth, only a little 

 shorter, and solidly built of mud, grass, and weeds. When it 

 has served a year the grass grows up in it, but it is often used 

 again another year, being first raised and trimmed up by the 

 bird. When building a nest, the albatros — I suppose the 

 female — scrapes up the mud from about it, but when she has 

 made a little pile she stands upon it, and the rest of the work 

 is done standing thus, so that her weight — from 181b. to 251b. 

 — always serves to solidify what has been completed. In 

 working from this standpoint, the bird digs up bits of earth 

 with its beak and lays them upon the pile. About five digs to 

 the minute is the average rate, and when it has done about 

 five it turns and digs from another place. In digging thus it 

 makes a trench round the cone, which may serve to keep the 

 nest drained. It nearly always builds among high tussock, 

 but takes little or no pains to conceal the nest. Its sole idea 

 of protection is the utter isolation of its nesting-home. Its 

 one plan for protecting its egg is to sit on it and never leave 

 it. When the albatros is building its nest its mouth is gene- 

 rally rather soiled inside. When the nest is built it is finished 

 off with a slight and neatly-made basin-like depression at the 

 top, and in this are placed a few leaves and bits of dry grass, 

 but not enough to prevent the egg from coming into contact 

 with the soil and getting very dirty before it is hatched. 

 There is never more than one egg, wdiich once a day is turned 

 over by the bird to expose the other side to its breast. 

 It is pure- white except at the big end, where it is reddish. 

 It weighs about a pound. It is said to be good eating, but I 

 never tried it. It has two yolks, one small and the other 

 large — at least, so it appeared to me when blowing numerous 

 eggs. Sometimes two albatroses make their nests close to- 

 gether, but this seems accidental. When we got to this 

 ground we separated in collecting the eggs. Often I could 



