THE WANDERING ALBATROSS. 109 
From October 17th to November 7th, birds which were brown all over, but with 
a paler head. 
On November 16th we were close outside the ice pack, and saw one adult. Also 
the following day one adult and one immature, and an adult on November 19th. 
At the Macquarie Islands we saw both young and old on November 22nd. The 
species became more and more abundant as we neared the New Zealand coast, and at 
the end of November both young and old were exceptionally abundant. 
After leaving New Zealand we saw many more on December 25th, both young 
and old being quite abundant each day onwards as we went south until January 2nd, 
when we came in sight of ice. This was the last that we saw of the bird, for it left 
us as soon as we entered the ice pack, and although it has been recorded off Ross’s 
Great Ice Barrier, we ourselves did not see it farther south than 65° 8. 
On our return journey to New Zealand we saw every common form of Albatross 
except Diomedea exulans as soon as, or even before, we had left the immediate 
neighbourhood of ice, but although in December that bird had been abundant in the 
same seas, in March we saw very few indeed. In going north the first was seen on 
March 9th, 1904 (60°S. 177° E.)—a second-year’s bird with a brown cap. March 10th 
and 11th each showed one bird. The 12th showed many more, two of which were 
mottled brown all over, a very young phase. On this day we saw five or six together, 
sometimes settled on the water. On March 14th nearly all that we saw were young 
and mottled, and we came close in to the Auckland Islands. 
On June 10th we left New Zealand on our homeward voyage by way of the 
Magellan Straits. We saw several examples of Diomedea exulans between June 12th 
and 19th (chiefly third-year birds with brown caps). After this it absolutely 
disappeared until we had passed through the Magellan Straits and had entered the 
South Atlantic Ocean. Even then we reached the Falkland Islands without seeing a 
single example, and it was not until July 23rd (48° W. 46°8.) that the bird again 
appeared. On the 29th we saw one adult and one yearling, and an adult on July 31 
(29° 8. 27° W.), after which we saw no more. 
When on the wing the feet are held folded together at full length under the tail, 
and, extending well beyond its longest feathers, give the impression of a markedly 
wedge-shaped tail with a white terminal border. This, of course, is not the case, for 
the tail is bordered by black at the extremity, and the appearance of white beyond 
the black is due to the whitish feet. 
Divmedea eaulans was by no means so devoid of shyness as some of the other 
albatrosses. Diomedea regia and chionoptera were the most shy of all, exulans 
occasionally found courage to come closer to our wake, sometimes quite close, but 
the most friendly and familiar of all were D. melanophrys, Phebetria fuliginosa, and 
Thalassogeron culminatus. 
Diomedea exulans is known to breed freely on Kerguelen Island, where a large 
number of nests are built on the grassy slopes 700 or 800 feet above the sea, 
