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nor B. exulans is to be found there. On Campbell Island, where B. regia reigns supreme, 

 B. exulans is never seen. On the Auckland Islands, with the exception of the small colony of 

 B. regia nesting at the eastern end of Adam's Island, all the breeding birds belong to B. exulans. 

 On the Antipodes Island, again, there are no Biomedea regia, and the breeding birds of the other 

 species are, for the most part, in the dark-grey plumage with white face and throat. One of the 

 officers of the ' Hinemoa ' told me that he turned many of these dark-coloured birds off the nest 

 and always found an egg, which seemed to him far more elliptical in form than the ordinary 

 Albatros's egg. He noticed, moreover, that sometimes a very dark bird was paired with a much 

 lighter one. 



At the time of one of the visits of the ' Hinemoa ' to Campbell Island, at the end of 

 February, the eggs of Biomedea regia were just on the point of being hatched, the embryo beino- 

 well developed. As already stated, the breeding season of Biomedea exulans on Auckland Islands 

 is somewhat later, for on the same cruise the crew and passengers brought on board some four or 

 five hundred eggs, all of which were fresh enough to be blown. 



I have compared male and female specimens obtained on the east coast of Otago, and I can 

 detect no difference whatever between the sexes, except that the male has a somewhat thicker bill. 

 The female may have a little more white on the upper surface of wings, but this character 

 is a variable one. 



In the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, I saw an undoubted example of this species labelled as 

 Biomedea exulans. The Curator told me the specimen had been in the Museum many years, and 

 that it was recorded as having come from the Cape of Good Hope. 



In the British Museum there are two specimens from Enderby Island in the Auckland 

 group. 



The following passage in Cook's ' Second Voyage ' probably refers to this species, and, if so, it 

 is without doubt the earliest record of the bird : "In the afternoon of the 21st [January, 1773] 

 being in the latitude of 64° 24' South, longitude 42° 19' East, we saw a white Albatros with 

 black-tipped wings." 



Some years ago, as I left the New Zealand coast (on September 11th) for Fiji, several birds 

 followed our steamer all day, although it was perfectly calm. One fine Biomedea regia — readily 

 distinguishable on the wing from Biomedea exulans by the splash of white on the humeral flexure 

 — several of the latter, and also . of Biomedea melanoplirys, were in our wake till nightfall. There 

 were two or three of the Giant Petrel and a few Cape Pigeons. It was a pleasant diversion to 

 watch their aerial movements from the deck of the steamer, and it seemed to me that Biomedea 

 melanophrys was decidedly the smartest and handsomest of the whole group, its movements on 

 the wing being peculiarly light and graceful. On the following morning, with a gentle trade- wind 

 blowing, a single Albatros appeared for a short time, and another swept over our stern at noon, 

 and then winged its way off into the watery expanse. We had not another glimpse of bird 

 life till we approached the coral reefs of Fiji. Of course, this in no way surprised us, because it is 

 notorious that as we approach the tropics, sea-birds disappear. Captain Beaumont (of the s.s. 

 ' Flora,' by which I was travelling) told me that in winter he has sometimes carried the Albatros 

 with him as far as the Tonga reefs, but never in the summer months. 



On one of my last coastal trips by steamer in New Zealand, from the harbour of Lyttelton 

 till we reached Terawiti Point, near Wellington Heads — the sea being quite smooth — we were 

 followed by about twenty Albatroses which appeared to belong exclusively to this species, the 

 humeral patch of white being very conspicuous in them all. One of them had all the wings 

 except the quills white speckled with grey. When the bird " seated " itself on the surface of the 

 water to feed and folded up its wings it looked as if it was entirely white. 



Mr. W. Smyth, the taxidermist at Caversham, showed me two preserved heads of this 



