574 



SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



[Aves. 



depression in the ground. The building-np of cheese-like nests is confined to the 

 group of molly ma wks." This is not generally true, and may have been induced 

 by the inspection of an old nest, still tenanted by the young bird, whose occupancy 

 for nine or ten months reduces the height of the nest considerably. The accompany- 

 ing photographs show the form of recent nests. 



Hah. — Southern Ocean. 



Diomedea melanophrys, Boie. 

 (Common moUymawk.) 



Diomedea melanophrys, Boie 

 in Temm. PI. Col, 1828, 

 p. 456. 



Numbers of these birds flew 

 about the vessel as it lay at 

 anchor, and swooped down for 

 food thrown from the galley. 

 On Disappointment Island we 

 came across their breeding- 

 grounds. The nests are made 

 on a rather steep slope, clothed 

 with Ligusticum, and consist 

 of a conical mound, varying in 

 height from Sin. to 18 in. The 

 nest is constructed of mud 

 mixed with vegetable substances 

 scraped from around, and the 

 cup-shaped depression is lined 

 with finer materials. The birds 

 sit but a few feet apart, and 

 they dot the whole of the hill- 

 side. Seen from a distance, 

 the effect was aptly likened by 

 Professor Kirk to a beautiful 

 field of daisies. 



We did not find the bird in 

 the main group at the Auck- 

 lands, though it is reported as 

 breeding there. Mr. Marriner 

 found a mollymawk breeding on Campbell Island ; it is possibly this species, as it 

 has previously been reported as doing so. He writes, " These birds had their 

 rookeries only on the north end of the island, situated on the top of the cliffs ; 

 individual birds were seen on the harbours." 



Mr. Charles Byre told us that, unlike the albatroses, which fed their young only 

 every other day, the mollymawks came daily, morning and evening. 



Hob. — North Atlantic and Southern Oceans. 



Fig. 18. — Mollymawk (Biumedea melanophrys) on Nest, 

 Disappointment Island, Auckland Islands. 



