Order PEOCELLAEIIFOEMES.] 



[Family DIOMEDEIDiE. 





PHCEBETIUA FULIGINOSA. 



(SOOTY ALBATEOS.) 



Diomedea fuliginosa, Gmelin ; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, yoI. ii., p. 205. 



The egg of this species, as described by me (vol. ii., p. 206), is more or less spotted, especially 

 towards the larger pole ; but one of the officers on board the ' Hinemoa ' has a specimen in his 

 possession which is perfectly white ; and I find that Dr. Kidder, in his description of the birds of 

 Kerguelen Island, says of this species : " The egg is single, white, and very long in proportion 

 to its thickness." Of its nesting habits he gives the following interesting particulars : " October 

 24 : Two of the Dusky Albatroses had made a nest upon a shelf formed by a considerable tuft of 

 cabbage and Azorella at the entrance of a small cavity in the perpendicular face of a lofty rock, 

 near the top of a hill some two miles away. Here the birds could be both seen and heard. 

 Their scream is very loud, and not unlike one of the calls of a cat. At a distance it has 

 often been mistaken for the hail of a man. The name ' Pee-arr ' has been given as descriptive of 

 this call, which is, I believe, peculiar to the breeding-season. Another pair was seen on the same 

 day circling around the same hilltop. No eggs.— November 2 : Secured one egg and both birds. 

 The nest is a conical mound, 7 in. or 8 in. high, hollowed into a cup at the top, and lined rudely 

 with grass. The male was sitting when captured ; the female standing on another old nest not 

 far away, but higher up the face of the rock. There was no evidence of an intention to rebuild 

 the old nest. Both birds, but particularly the male, showed fight when approached, clattering 

 their large bills with an odd noise, and biting viciously when they got a chance. The male 

 is perceptibly the larger bird of the two. Although I have often observed the Dusky Albatros 

 sailing along very close to the surface of the water, or circling round rocky hilltops, I have 

 never seen it feed, except in captivity. Then both birds ate freely of fresh meat. The peculiar 

 call, which can be heard for a very long distance, is most often given by the sitting bird, 

 and answered by its mate flying near by. . . . — November 12 : I found another bird on a nest 

 in a locality similar to that already described. It stared stupidly at me, clattering its beak, 

 and turning its head from side to side, but making no effort to escape. There was no egg. The 

 narrow line of white feathers above and behind the eyes gives these birds a singular and striking 

 appearance — a sort of wide-eyed, amazed air that distinguishes them markedly from other birds. 

 The white feathers are very minute, but quite perfect. This last-mentioned nest was shortly 

 after abandoned by the bird, apparently because it had been disturbed. Another bird was 

 found sitting on an egg on November 22, high in the rocks, and some four miles inland." 



There is a specimen in the Canterbury Museum — taken somewhere in the South Atlantic — 

 in which the whole of the plumage is of an uniform dark slate colour. 



This species is more wary in its breeding habits than any other species of Albatros. It 

 breeds both in the Auckland and Campbell Islands. But it usually selects, as a nesting-place, 

 a ledge of rock high up on the face of the cliff, and quite inaccessible, either from above or below. 

 A nestling in down in my collection was brought by the ' Hinemoa ' from the Auckland Islands, 

 but the eggs of this species have not yet been obtained there, although strenuous efforts have 

 been made from time to time by the officers of the ' Hinemoa ' to reach the nests. Apart, 

 therefore, from its modifications of structure, the entire difference in its habits of nidincation 

 would quite seem to justify the placing of this Albatros in a genus by itself. 



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