THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Immature, Nestling, Nest, Egg, and Breeding -season of this subspecies do not yet appear to have 
been described, though Travers {Trans. New Zeal. Inst 1872, Vol. V., p. 219, 1873) 
wrote : “They breed in November (at the Chatham Islands) laying only one egg at 
a time. Like the albatros they only breed on rocky islets destitute of vegetation, 
the nests being placed on the edges of the cliffs.” 
From the authors quoted above I gather the following : This bird at night, 
when hovering round the ship, emits a most diabolical sound. Its flight is not 
so easy, graceful and buoyant as that of the Albatros, but is of a more 
laboured and flapping character. When disturbed, both young and old vomit 
matter of a highly unpleasant smell, sometimes as far as 8 feet. They 
eat Penguins, Prions, etc.. Seals, and in fact aU animals that inhabit the 
same locality as they themselves frequent. During the incubation period 
the parents will sometimes sit so closely, that they have to be pushed off the 
nests before the eggs can be taken. When going to feed on the carcase of a 
dead whale, the birds always alight some distance off and swim to their prey. 
It can walk erect. When resting, the whole tarsus touches the ground ; when 
flying, the tail is usually spread, and has a broad cuneiform appearance. 
The bird figured and described is a male albino, collected on the Snares 
(New Zealand). 
In the Monograph of the Petrels, this bird scarcely receives its due meed 
of attention, a great deal of interest being dismissed by the following short 
passage : “ It is remarkable that, as in the case of the Common Fulmar of the 
north, its great southern representative has occasionally, but very rarely, a 
pure white phase of plumage, many of the nearly white birds having a sprinkling 
of dark feathers . . . There is, however, a wide range of colour throughout 
the species, for birds vary from light grey to white, flecked with a few dark 
feathers. We have no reason to suppose that these birds of various phases of 
plumage do not interbreed, but from observations made by Dr. Wilson, we 
learn that a larger percentage of light coloured birds exist in the ice regions 
than in those of a more temperate zone.” It is further written (p. 262) ; 
“It is widely distributed in the southern oceans, where it was discovered 
by Captain Cook, who obtained an example in Kerguelen Island, which was 
subsequently described by Latham.” This is not quite accurate, as the 
following history will show. 
This bird was noted by Bougainville, and also Pernety, before the time 
of Captain Cook, and these references are included in the synonymy in the 
Monograph. The second one, by Pernety, reads — 
‘‘Mouton, Pernety, Voy., I., p. 15, PI. 8, fig. 3.” 
This seems to be copied from Latham {Gen. Syn. Birds, Vol. III., p. 396, 
1785), where it is written “ Mouton, Pernety, Voy. I., p. 15, t. 8, fig. 3 
180 
