Birds of Kerguelen Island . 
17 
-HDiomedea melanophrys Temm.; Salvin, Cat. B. xxv. 
p. 447. 
The Black-browed Albatross seems to me to have a voice 
like the bleat of a sheep. Near the South Head of Greenland 
Harbour an opportunity was given me to see a magnificent 
rookery of this species. The cliff faced the east, and was, 
roughly, over 700 feet high. The birds were dotted upon it 
to a height of about 400 feet, where an incline led to it; but 
in other directions the cliff looked precipitous, bold, and 
forbidding. I counted 40 to 50 birds in a flock on the water, 
just in front of the nesting-ground; but this number was 
proportionately very small, and there must have been from 
500 to 700 birds in the mass of whitened spots. Individuals 
flew off and on, associated into groups and separated, lodged 
on the water and quickly left it, all the time displaying their 
very elegant flight. Although I had spent three days in 
visiting the islands and the mainland, in search of this 
rookery, I could not see it until I was sailing within a few 
hundred yards, and quite opposite it *. 
Captain Steensohn hooked two of these Albatrosses forme. 
One was caught by the leg through quarrelling with another; 
while the second was captured by the beak, which does not 
often occur, owing to the bird's bump of caution, for the bait 
is nearly always dropped at tbe first pull and the barb of the 
hook does not usually hold. On throwing a large piece of 
fat overboard, I noticed that each time the bird tugged at it 
the open wings jerked forward and the tail flicked upward. 
Although this mass of birds tvas so near a large harbour, 
more than three or four were seldom seen inside it at one 
time, and very few appeared 30 miles west of the colony. 
From this I concluded that this Albatross is very local in its 
distribution, and finds its food straight out from the shore. 
We kept one alive on board from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., and 
when released it joined a mate with apparent good humour 
* [The discovery of a breeding-place of this species is interesting, 
inasmuch as the Black-browed Albatross was not ascertained by the 
‘ Challenger ’ Expedition to nest on Kerguelen, although two specimens 
of it were obtained there.— Edd.] 
SER. VII.—VOL. VI. 
C 
