Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/229

] (cormorant), a snipe, a penguin, and two kinds of gull, the black-backed, and small ash-backed, frequenting the bays in great abundance. The albatross (Diomedea exulans) was breeding in considerable numbers on the tops of the cliffs to the northwestward of the harbour. Their nest is formed, upon a small mound of earth, of withered grass and leaves matted together, above six feet in circumference at the base, and about eighteen inches in height; it is the joint labour of the male and female birds. Like most of the petrel tribe, the albatross lays only one egg, of a pure white, varying in weight from fifteen to twenty-one ounces. In one instance only, out of above one hundred nests that were examined, were two eggs found in the same nest.

"Its greatest enemy is a fierce raptorial gull, very strongly resembling the Skua gull, both in its predatory habits and general aspect, and is probably an undescribed species.

"Several kinds of petrel were breeding in holes underground, and on the sides of the cliffs bounding the bays; a solitary ring-plover was seen, but no specimen was obtained."

Of insects we observed a great variety, and a large collection was made. The sand-flies were very troublesome during the heat of the day, and their stings painful.

The party employed cutting fire-wood found a cat's nest with two kittens in it, still blind: they were of course destroyed, but the old cat escaped.