280 Capt. F. W. Hutton on some of the 



from land until the following year, when they accompany the 

 old ones to sea. While the old birds are away it is difficult to 

 imagine how the young ones obtain food, for Mr. Harris assures 

 me that no old birds are seen near the islands for months to- 

 gether. Strange as this may appear, its very strangeness is in 

 favour of its truth, as no one would think of inventing such a 

 story } and its correctness is further corroborated by the abun- 

 dance of Albatroses found at sea from April to October inclu- 

 sive, and their comparative rarity, especially of the old white 

 birds, during the rest of the year, which I believe to be the case. 

 Of their abundance between April and October no one who has 

 been in the Southern Ocean at that time of the year will doubt ; 

 and in the latter month, I know from my own experience that 

 the old birds begin to get scarce. It is more difficult to collect 

 sufficient evidence of their rarity from November to March, as 

 few voyagers visit the regions they inhabit at this season of the 

 year, and fewer still take notice of the birds. Dr. Pickering, 

 however, who accompanied the United States^ Exploring Expe- 

 dition under Commander (now Admiral) Wilkes, states that this 

 bird was only occasionally seen in January, while it was much 

 more common in April ; and Captain Cook's experience seems 

 to have been much the same. In October and November 

 1772 Albatroses, he says, were common. In December and 

 January they were scarce, or entirely absent ; and but few seem 

 to have been seen by him until he reached New Zealand, except 

 on the 10th of February, 1773, when he reports an abundance] 

 but on that day he was within a few miles of the south-east part 

 of Kerguelen's Land, where they breed. He did not again visit 

 these regions until the middle of December 1773, when he left 

 New Zealand for the Pacific, and from this time until the follow- 

 ing February, when he got too far north, he appears to have 

 observed very few, most, if not all, being young birds. At the 

 close of this year (1774) he doubled Cape Horn ; but after No- 

 vember no mention is made of Albatroses^except that they 

 were seen in Staten Island in January — until March 1775, 

 when he says that some accompanied the ship every day until 

 he got beyond their habitat. Sir James Ross, too, in his account 

 of tae voyage of the Erebus and Terror in 1839-43, never men- 



