150 PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS. 



need a good deal of bullying with the stick before they stand 

 up in the nest and let one see whether they have got an egg 

 there or no. 



Then the egg is seen to appear slowly out of the pouch in 

 which it is held during incubation. It is nearly five inches 

 long, or about as big as a swan's, and is white with specks of 

 red at the large end. Only one egg is laid. In most of the 

 nests there were fresh eggs ; in some, however, nearly full- 

 grown young birds. 



At Campbell Island, of the Campbell and Auckland group, 

 the young of Diomedea exulans were found by an exploring 

 party to be just breaking the shell in February.* Charles 

 Goodridge, who was one of a sealing party on the Prince 

 Edward Islands in 1820, and spent two years on the Crozets, 

 says, that the albatrosses there lay at about Christmas, and 

 that the period of incubation is about three months (?). The 

 young, he says, vv'ere wing-feathered, and good to eat about 

 May, and did not fly off till December.! 



The young albatrosses are dark grey in plumage. They 

 snap their bills, like the old ones, to try and frighten away 

 enemies. 



The old birds never attempt to fly, though persistently ill- 

 treated or driven heavily waddling over the ground. Very 

 many were killed by the sailors that their wing-bones might 

 be taken out for pipe stems, and their feet skinned to make 

 tobacco pouches. The old males tried to run away when 

 frightened, but never even raised their wings. 



It is amusing to watch the process of courtship. The male 

 standing by the female on the nest raises his wings, spreads 

 his tail and elevates it, throws up his head with the bill in the 

 air, or stretches it straight out forwards as far as he can, and 

 then utters a curious cry, like the Mollymauks, but in a much 

 lower key, as would be expected from his larger larynx. 

 Whilst uttermg the cry, the bird sways his neck up and 

 down. The female responds with a similar note, and they 

 bring the tips of their bills lovingly together. This sort of 

 thing goes on for half an hour or so at a time. No doubt 

 the birds consider that they are singing. Occasionally an 

 albatross flies round and alights upon the grass, but I saw 

 none take wing. 



* " Notes on the Geology of the Outlying Islands of New Zealand. 

 Reported by. Dr. Hector, F.R.S." Trans. N. Zealand Inst., Vol. II., 1869, 



P- 75- 



f " Narrative of a Voyage to the South Seas, and Eight Years' Residence 

 in Van Dieinen's Land,' p. 35, by C. M. Goodndge. London, Hamilton 

 it Adams, 1833. 



