432 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



pearing above the grass, betray its situation at a considerable 

 distance oJBP. On the approach of an intruder it resolutely 

 defends its egg, refusing to quit the nest until forced off, 

 when it slowly waddles away in an awkward manner to a 

 short distance, without attempting to take wing. Its greatest 

 enemy is a fierce species of Lestris, always on the watch for 

 the Albatros quitting its nest, when this rapacious pirate in- 

 stantly pounces down and devours the egg. So well is the 

 poor bird aware of the propensity of its foe, that it snaps the 

 mandibles of its beak violently together whenever it observes 

 the Lestris flying overhead." 



Captain F. W. Hutton states that Wandering Albatroses 

 "are very common south of latitude 40° S., and monopolize 

 nearly the whole of the Prince Edward Islands, and the south- 

 east portion, or lee side, as the sailors call it, of Kerguelen's 

 Land, to which places they retire to breed in October. The 

 nest, which is always placed on high table-lands, is in the 

 shape of a frustrum of a cone, with a slightly hollowed top, 

 and is made of grass and mud, which the birds obtain by 

 digging a circular ditch, about two yards in diameter, and 

 pushing the earth towards the centre until it is about eighteen 

 inches high. In this nest the female lays one white egg, 

 which is not hatched till January." — Ibis, 1865, p. 279. 



I am indebted to Dr. McCormick for a fine egg of this 

 species, which is four inches and three-quarters long by three 

 and a quarter broad, of a pure white and of the ordinary 

 shape ; another, presented by this gentleman to the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, is much longer and nearly equal in size 

 at both ends. 



Mr. Earle states that the young arc a year old before they 

 can fly, but on this point I fear he must be mistaken ; for 

 although a long period must elapse before their lengthened 

 wings are sufficiently developed to sustain their heavy bodies 

 during their lengthened flights, still it is natural to suppose 

 that the young would leave the nest before the recurrence of 



