AN ALBATROS "ROOKERY" 



The former are often surrounded by water, above which they 

 rise like miniature islands. 



Owing to the length of her neck, the hen bird can feed 

 even when sitting on one of the high mounds, by scooping 

 up shellfish from the water in her queerly shaped beak. 



The albatroses, though scarcely able to compete with 

 some flamingoes in this respect, are also mound builders. 

 We are acquainted with about fifteen species, of which the 

 best known is the Wandering Albatros (Diomedea exulans), 

 whose flight is more powerful probably than that of any 

 other bird, its great wings measuring as much as eleven feet 

 from tip to tip. It seldom approaches land except for the 

 purpose of nesting, but spends the greater part of its life on 

 the wing, only resting on the surface of the water occasion- 

 ally in calm or moderate weather. In October immense 

 numbers repair to the more remote islands of the Southern 

 Ocean, such as Tristan da Cunha, where they nest on the 

 tablelands in dense colonies or "rookeries. 11 They make 

 mounds of mud, mixed up with grass and sedge, about 

 fourteen inches in diameter, and rather neatly rounded. 

 The sides of the mound are usually almost upright, but the 

 yellow-billed albatros or " mollymauk, 11 as sailors call it 

 often undermines them a little while sitting, so that the 

 mound becomes narrower at its foundation than it is above. 

 There is a slight hollow in the top to contain the single 

 egg, which is white and about as large as that of a swan. 

 In the picture the birds are represented sitting upon their 

 nests, and you will observe that they allow themselves to be 

 approached by the sailors who have come ashore to rob them 

 of their eggs, without showing any signs of excitement. 



Gould, that great authority on Australian birds, reckoned 

 the Ocellated Megapode (Lipoa ocellata\ commonly known 

 in England as the Mallee-bird, amongst the most important 



127 



