Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/458

414 Lark (Anthus Novas Seelandiæ), were all the land birds met with.

The water birds consisted of a duck (Anas superciliosa), a Merganser (Mergus Australis), a penguin (Aptenodytes antipodes), a snipe found in the high grass near the bay, and two species of gulls (Larus littoreus, and L. Novæ Hoilandiæ,) frequented all the bays in considerable numbers.

In Campbell Island, situated not much further south, and although less wooded than Auckland, having many of its valleys overgrown with underwood, and the general character of the vegetation similar, I did not meet with a single land bird.

These islands appear to be the favourite breeding-places of the Albatross (Diomedea exulans), and during our stay in the months of November and December they were so busily employed in the work of incubation, as to allow themselves to be caught, without making an effort to escape. It is an amusing scene to watch a group of these birds, a dozen or more, assembled together on the side of a hill, grotesquely waddling about, selecting their mates; this being settled, they disperse, and each pair fix upon a spot for the nest. This consists of a mound of soil, intermingled with withered leaves and grass, the average dimensions of which I found to be eighteen inches in height, twenty-seven inches in diameter at the top, and six feet at the base. The albatross, like the petrels, only lays one egg, of a white colour, averaging seventeen ounces in weight. In one instance, only, I found two eggs in the same nest (both of the full size, and one of them unusually elongated in its longest diameter), although I must have examined at least a hundred nests. The snow-white head and neck of the albatross appearing above the grass when sitting on its nest, betrays its situation at a considerable distance. When forced off its egg, it makes a resolute defence, snapping the mandibles of its beak sharply together in defiance. I have frequently found it sleeping in the day-time, with its head under its