1 6 Vallentin, Notes on the Falkland Islands. 



having been robbed of their contents. This I can quite 

 beheve, seeing that the island is stated in the South 



American Pilot to be " about half a mile across." 



To carry a number of such eggs across a rocky island 

 without breaking them would be almost impossible. 



The few young birds of this species which were 

 hatched from the eggs laid during the previous November 

 were very attractive. They were covered with a layer of 

 fine down of a uniform lavender-grey colour; the bills 

 being almost black. These young fledglings were most 

 pugnacious, and would invariably stand up in the nest on 

 one's approach, and snap their bills at the intruder. The 

 most striking feature about these birds was that each was 

 far too large for its nest, and as they could not fly they 

 seemed most helpless, and never appeared even to step 

 from their homes. These young Mollymauks were all 

 about the same size,and measured about 14 inches in height 

 when standing erect. On leaving this rookery, I passed 

 on and soon arrived at the edge of a precipice, with an 

 almost vertical wall of rock at least 400 feet above the sea. 

 Scattered along the edge of this cliff were numbers of 

 nests of the same species of Mollymauks, and as these 

 birds were numerous, I thought it would be a good 

 opportunity to test an experiment made by Captain Car- 

 michael, at Tristam da Cunba. According to Professor 



Mosley,^ this gentleman "threw one of these birds 



over a cliff, and saw it fall like a stone without attempting 

 to flap" its wings. With Mr. Felton's assistance, we both 

 simultaneonsly seized one by the neck and wings, and at 

 a given signal threw it over this precipice. As soon as 

 the bird was free, it spread out its wings, and soared away 

 none the worse for the experiment. As several additional 

 trials were made during the afternoon with invariably the 

 same results, I can only suggest that the Mollymauks 



