230 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN'. 



made quite sore. The young birds do not go far 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 together. 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 Albatrosses found at sea from April to October, inclusive, and 

 their comparative rarity, especially of the old white ones, 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 Novembei 

 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 Expedition, 

 under Commander (now Admiral) Wilkes, states that this bird was 

 only occasionally seen in Januarjr, while it was much more com- 

 mon in April ; and Captain Cook's experience seems to have been much 

 the same. In October and November, 1772, Albatrosses, 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 following 

 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 November no mention is made 

 of Albatrosses — 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 the voyage of the "Erebus" and "Terror" in 1839-43, never mentions 

 Albatrosses between November and March, and I am therefore disposed 

 to believe that the old birds go to sea in March or April, when the 

 young ones are about three months old. Mr. A. Earle, in his "Nar- 

 rative of Nine Months' Eesidence in the Island of Tristan d'Acunha," 

 as quoted by Gould, says that he saw old Albatrosses " stalking about" 

 their young in May ; but as D. exulans can only just manage to get 

 along on land by the help of its wings in a most awkward and ridi- 

 culous manner, which no one would think of dignifying by the term 

 " stalking," I am of opinion that he mistook D. melanophrys for this 

 bird. On his way out, Mr. Harris spent thi'ee weeks in August at 

 Tristan d'Acunha, Nightingale Island, and Inaccessible Island, but 

 never saw any Albatrosses during the whole time. Mr. Harris says 



