444 G. E. Verrill — Some Birds and Eggs collected at 



about the island, among tussocks and brakes, more like the albatross 

 \I). exulans], but at South Georgia and most of the islands they 

 build close to each other in rookeries.* At Gough Island they com- 

 mence laying the 20th of September. They lay but one egg. If 

 robbed they do not lay again but leave the nest and do not return 

 till another season. Nests are built the same as the Albatross [D. 

 exulans\ only smaller." In his journal at Gough Island, on Sept. 

 7th, Mr. Comer notes that, " The molly mokes have commenced to 

 make their nests." Again on Sept. 27th that he "got a few molly 

 moke eggs," and from then on he frequently speaks of taking their 

 eggs. 



The shape of the 75 eggs is comparatively pretty uniform, as a 

 rule more elongate, and nearer elliptical than the following species, 

 most of them approaching an elliptical ovoid. Several are nearly 

 perfect ellipsoids. 



The texture and surface of the shell is much like that of D. 

 exulans, but finer and smoother in proportion to their smaller size. 



The ground-color is white, generally with a very slight grayish or 

 dusky and sometimes reddish tinge, and the whole egg is covered 

 with minute specks of a reddish brown, darker than in D. exidans ; 

 in some they are even dark brown. 



These specks vary much in number and are, for the most part, in 

 the small pits and depressions on the surface of the shell. About 

 one-third of the eggs are otherwise unmarked, so that at a little dis- 

 tance they simply have a dusky appearance. In the other two-thirds 

 the specks become larger and thicker toward the larger end, often 

 forming a more or less perfect zone about it, in other cases they run 

 together and form a blotch which is, in some, quite heavy and con- 

 spicuous. 



As in D. exulans, the color is very superficial and many have 

 larger spots or small blotches, unevenly distributed, that scale off when 

 very dry, and like the eggs of the large Albatross, most of them, 

 when held to the light, show spots and blotches of color in the shell. 

 Three are quite different from the rest in markings, two being 

 heavily streaked over the whole egg with reddish brown, thickest at 

 the large end. The other is streaked, not quite so heavily, with pale 

 lilac, which is not so superficial. 



* This seems to me another point showing the difference between the species, as I 

 have no doubt the birds at South Georgia are T. chlororhynchus as Mr. Comer writes 

 me that "they have a yellow streak on the upper part of the beak and another on- 

 the lower part." 



