No data are available for black-footed albatrosses. One 
female New Zealand royal albatross is reported to have nested for the 
first time in her ninth year (Richdale, 1952:120). Much more work is 
required to determine what proportion of birds in each age group are 
sexually mature. 
Selection of Nesting Sites by Immature Birds 
When ready to nest, do albatrosses return to the site where 
they were hatched? This question has long been a subject of much 
discussion and speculation on Midway. Present evidence indicates 
that they do not. No albatrosses banded as chicks have yet been 
found nesting at the same site in subsequent years. On the other 
hand, 2 Laysan albatrosses have been found nesting at some distance 
from their hatching sites. One bird hatched at Gooneyville Lodge, 
Sand Island, in 1937 was found nesting 500 yards away, behind the 
Officers! Club, in 1957-58. Another bird hatched on Eastern Island 
in 1951 was found nesting on Sand Island, 3 miles away, 7 seasons 
later (1957-58). Of 97 other banded chicks which hatched at the same 
time and place as this bird, 14 were killed on Sand Island during the 
killing program. These incidents indicate a tendency for immature 
birds to wander and eventually settle down at places some distance 
from their hatching sites. What proportion, if any, might settle 
down at other atolls is not known, but it is perhaps significant that 
none of the thousands of albatrosses which have been banded at Midway 
was found on Kure Atoll or on Laysan Island despite special search. 
From these facts it would appear that population spread of these two 
species of albatross is by young birds which have never nested before 
rather than of adults which have nested previously. 
Permanence of the Pair Bond 
On several study plots, 341 marked pairs of Laysan alba- 
trosses were followed through two nesting seasons (1956-57 and 1957- 
58). During the second season, the status of the previous season's 
pairs was as follows: 
Number Percent 
Pairs returned intact 323 94.7 
Pairs returned "divorced" 7 2.1 
(both birds with new mates) 
-Only one member returned 11 3.2 
(with new mate) 
It therefore appears that the pair bond normally remains 
intact until broken by the death or disappearance of one of the 
partners. . 
