Diomedea melanophrys in the Forde Islands. 107 
This is the only place in the Ferées where the large aquatic 
bird, the Gannet (Pelicanus bassanus), has its home. From 
the north-west the island slopes gently to the south, like one 
side of the roof of a house. . . .” The islet is quite un- 
inhabited, and is only used as pasture for oxen and sheep. 
The grass which covers its surface, but not the declivities 
sloping seaward, is uncommonly thick and luxuriant. It is 
said that the Gannets only live and breed on the north and 
west side of the islet, and on two adjacent rocks, “ Puigars- 
drengur” and “Fledtidrengur.” It must be granted that 
the natural surroundings of this rocky islet would appear 
rather home-like to an Albatross. For nesting in the 
southern seas, it selects just such rocky islets or single 
rocks, though often considerably higher than Myggenaes 
Holm and its “Drengur.” The nests, which Mr Dougall 
found on Campbell Island, were on the slopes of Mount 
Honey; the breeding-place on Keppel Island in West 
Falkland, described by Snow, was also situated on a pre- 
cipitous rock ; in short, all the breeding-places known are in 
similar places. 
The Gannets among whom it settled are certainly, in 
structural characters, highly different from their southern 
guest, but less in their habits of life. Like the Albatrosses, 
they are strong and persevering fliers, only resting on level 
eround in the utmost need; they breed in colonies, on rocky 
coasts by the open sea, and make nests in the form of a 
flattened cone, and with a shallow terminal cavity for their 
only egg. Among northern sea-birds, the Albatross could 
hardly find any species whose mode of life resembled its 
own more closely; in so far it is easy to understand that it 
chose a home among the Gannets. Nor has the aquatic 
avifauna in the Fierde Islands been quite unknown to the 
Albatross; several of the northern seabirds—not the species, 
but the types—are found again in the southern seas, for 
instance, Gannets, Cormorants, Petrels, Skuas, Gulls. 
Nor have the climatic conditions, or the food, been more 
unfavourable to its stay here, than the natural surroundings. 
The climate of the Atlantic in lat. 51°-55° 8. (Falkland 
Islands), and of the Pacific in lat. 49°-53° S. (the New 
