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291 



has not the slightest difficulty in keeping up with the ship, but also performs circles of many 

 miles in extent, returning again to hunt up the wake of the vessel for any substances thrown 

 overboard." It requires no great stretch of imagination to believe, with the last-named naturalist, 

 that in the course of their peregrination they frequently make the circuit of the globe — a con- 

 clusion the more natural, as the medusse and other marine productions on which they subsist 

 appear to be equally abundant in every latitude. 



Although the Wandering Albatros is very common in the seas round New Zealand, I have 

 never heard of its breeding on any of the outlying rocks ; but the Auckland Islands are 

 enumerated among its known breeding-stations. Dr. McCormick, surgeon of H.M.S. 'Erebus,' 

 who found it nesting there in the months of November and December, writes : — " The grass- 

 covered declivities of the hills above the thickets of wood are the spots selected by the Albatros 

 for constructing its nest, which consists of a mound of earth, intermingled with withered grass 

 and leaves matted together, 18 inches in height, 6 feet in circumference at the base, and 

 27 inches in diameter at the top, in which only one egg is usually deposited. The eggs I had an 

 opportunity of weighing varied in weight from 14^ to 19 oz., thirty specimens giving an average 

 of 17 oz. ; colour white ; [measuring 4*75 inches in length by 3*25 in breadth.] The Albatros, 

 during the period of incubation, is frequently found asleep, with its head under its wing : its 

 beautiful white head and neck, appearing above the grass, betray its situation at a considerable 

 distance off. On the approach of an intruder it resolutely defends its eggs, refusing to quit the 

 nest until forced off, when it slowly waddles away in an awkward manner to a short distance 

 without attempting to take wing. Its greatest enemy is a fierce species of Lestris^ always on the 

 watch for tire Albatros quitting its nest, when the rapacious pirate instantly pounces down and 

 devours the egg. So well is the poor bird aware of the propensity of its foe, that it snaps the 

 mandibles of its beak violently together whenever it observes the Lestris flying overhead." 



/ 



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