197 
the egg. So well is the poor bird aware of the propensity of its foe, that it snaps the mandibles of 
its beak violently together whenever it observes the Lestris flying overhead. 
Professor Scott found this species breeding on Campbell Island in the month of November , and, 
strange to say, as late as March 16th, as Sir James Hector has informed me by letter, “ Captain 
Fairchild found it nesting in large numbers on Antipodes Island. The nests were placed among the 
tussock -grass and moss, on a plateau 25 acres in extent and 1320 feet above the sea. Each nest 
contained a single egg. He examined hundreds of nests, but never found one with two eggs in it ' . 
The ‘ Hinemoa ’ proceeded from Antipodes to the Bounty Islands ; Diomedea exulans was not breeding 
there, but there were lots of I). vielanopliTys, and the young were quite large. 
The fledgling in the Otago Museum, described above, is stated to be about ten months old; and 
to account for this long babyhood I cannot do better than quote the following account f of the very 
curious domestic economy of this bird : — “At a certain time of the year, between February and June, 
Mr. Harris cannot exactly say when, the old birds leave their young and go to sea, and do not return 
until the next October, when they arrive in large numbers. Each pair goes at once to its old nest ; 
and after a little fondling of the young one, which has remained in or near the nest the whole time, 
they turn it out and prepare the nest for the next brood. The deserted young ones are in good 
condition and very lively, frequently being seen off their nests exercising their wings. When the old 
birds return and take possession of their nest, the young one often remains outside, and nibbles at the 
head of the old one until the feathers between the beak and the eye are removed and the skin made 
quite sore. The young birds do not go far from land until the following year, when they accompany 
the old ones to sea.” 
There can be no reasonable doubt as to the truth of this account, wonderful as it may appear. 
The Maoris, who are good natural observers, confirm the story, and state that when the young birds 
are left they are so immensely fat that they can subsist for months without food of any kind. Pro- 
fessor Flutton expressed a belief that the young birds are nocturnal (although the old ones are strict y 
diurnal) and “ go down to the sea at night, returning to their nests in the morning ; but Mr. Haiiis 
rejects this theory, stating that they are incapable of flight, and that the situations occupied by many 
of them made it impossible to get to the water except by that means. 
What is that divinely-implanted faculty which enables this bird, after wanderings that defy calcu- 
lation and perhaps encircle the globe, to find her way back at the right moment, across the pathless 
deep, to that little speck of rock in mid-ocean where she had cradled her young the season before . 
Doubtless the same mysterious unerring instinct that guides the Swallow in its annual pilgrimage— 
that leads the Pipit, without landmark of any kind, straight to her little nest in the glass ami st 
miles of waving tussock— that enables the nesting sea-bird, when she comes back from fishing, to pick 
out her two painted eggs from amongst the thousands that lie upon the barren rock. 
An eo'cr of this species in the Canterbury Museum is ovoid or slightly ovoido-elliptical in orm, 
yellowish tvhite, with a roughly granulate shell, wholly devoid of gloss or polish, but without any 
excrescences. It measures on its axis 4-8 inches in length by 3-3 in width. Its longest circumference 
is 12-6 inches, and its widest 10 inches. An egg obtained at Campbell Island, at the same time as 
the nestling described above (in the month of November), is ovoido-elliptical in form, measuring 
5 inches in length by 3 in breadth, and is perfectly white, with a slightly granulate surface. There 
is another egg in the Otago Museum (without any locality assigned to it) which is somewhat la , 
measuring 5‘5 inches in length by 3'2 in breadth, of a creamy coloiii and much soiled by ext 
contact, especially at the larger end. An egg in my sons collection is ovoido-elliptical, beiiij, s „ y 
larger at one end, and measures 4‘85 inches in length by 3T5 in breadth ; it is of a uniform ye 
ivhite with a finely granulate surface, w’ithout the slightest gloss. 
* Sir George Grey informs me that on the Auckland Islands he found hundreds of Albatroses hreedin^ ^ 
according to his account, were of the shape of a Chilton cheese, and each one contained a single ego. Hence } o> 
“ Kaingatahi.” o-qN 
t “ Notes on Birds inhahiting the Southern Ocean,” by F. W. Hutton (‘ The Ibis, lb o, p. )• 
