Birds of Kerguelen Island. 15 
white on the face, but the others were blotched with sombre 
colour on their necks. Here w r ere four nests with sitting 
birds within one hundred yards, so that four families were 
amicably engaged in the task of incubation and enjoying 
meanwhile each other’s company. 
In the month of February, out at sea (102° E., 43° S., 
February 2nd, 1898), I noticed an Albatross which looked 
like a link between this uniformly brown young bird 
and the almost mature white-necked one. It was dark 
brown, except the bill, face, cheeks, and throat, which were 
white, with two white lines of feathers in the wings close to 
the body as it floated on the water; the under sides of the 
wings had two wide bands of bluish-white and black. It 
was a piebald bird, and the only one seen by me throughout 
the trip. This was most likely a last season's bird, late in its 
moult, but not so late as the very brown one. These three 
stages may be normal, and probably are such. As to how 
the young learn to fly, my opinion is that they simply tumble 
out of the nest and practice their legs and wings until they 
can fly from the flat ground. The nests are promiscuously 
placed, and cliffs are less favoured than undulating ground 
near a low beach. When a Skua hovers above them, the 
sitting birds look defiant and clatter their mandibles. 
In three distinctly large colonies, and also in isolated 
pairs, the nests were usually within 50 feet above sea-level. 
The largest group was near Mount Campbell, where we 
handled some 80 eggs and observed many more in the 
distance. On Howe Island, off Kerguelen, I examined 
some 30 nests with eggs. At the Prince of Wales's Fore¬ 
land were more than 25 nests; while solitary nests were 
noted on Long Island, in Royal Sound, and on the adjacent 
southern beach. 
Several of these nests were quite hidden from a view of 
the sea, and extended inland half a mile, where ridges and 
small freshwater lakes intervened. They are made up of 
peaty grass interwoven with fibrous earth. A typical nest 
measured : breadth 37 inches, diameter of bowl 18 inches, 
depth of bowl 5 inches. The floor of this bowl would be 
