52 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
On the westward voyage from Melbourne the 
Wandering Albatross, though it has been recorded 
from Port Phillip Heads, is never plentiful till the 
Bight is reached, being then lost again soon after the 
steamer heads north-west across the Indian Ocean 
from Fremantle. On the other side of the Continent 
I found that all the way from Sydney, via Cook Strait 
to Valparaiso, we were rarely without a few accom- 
panying the steamer for what they could pick up. 
Our route lay directly past what is, I think, the nearest 
breeding-place to Australia — namely, the islets lying 
south of the Chatham Group. At times Wandering 
Albatrosses are seen by fishermen of! Torquay, and 
even venture inside Port Phillip. 
Apart from his size, the full-plumaged adult may 
be known from other Albatrosses by the centre of the 
back being whitish. The young vary greatly in 
colour, some seen in October, 191 3, off Sydney being 
all dark brown save for the belly and head, which 
were white, but divided from each other by a broad 
pectoral band of brown. Others, again, exhibited a 
sort of chocolate crown on top of the head. 
I referred elsewhere to the superstition of sailors 
that Cape Pigeons following ships are the trans- 
migrated souls of dead sailors ; in the same way they 
say of the Wandering Albatrosses that they are the 
spirits of departed captains. 
