Page:Condor11(1).djvu/6

THE. CO.IB.R Volume XI January-February 1909 Number 1 NOTES ON ALBATROSSES' AND OTHER PELAGIC BIRDS IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS By DR. T. W. RICHARDS, U. S. NAVY THE body of water known as the Great Austrahan B?ght , which fills an [ indentation on the southern coast of the Island Continent twelve hundred miles in width, bears an unenviable reputation; here the navigator well knows that bitter winds, with rain and hail, and the eternal swell which rolls in from the Antarctic, will all combine to render his passage both difficult and un- comfortable. It was with no pleasant anticipations, therefore, that we contem- plated a trip from Melbourne, Victoria, to. Albany, Western Australia; of all months, September--the beginning of spring--is one of the worst, and we had already sampled the Southern Ocean in crossing from New Zealand. But by the ornithological enthusiast, physical discomforts are easily overlooked; so when Mr. W. H. D. Le Souef, Director of the Melbourne "Zoo", informed me that I was about to traverse one of the most populou? haunts of the albatrosses of Australian seas, I brushed up my binoculars and prepared to become intimately acquainted with my fellow voyagers. The outcome fully justified nay friend's prediction, for in no other waters have I seen such an interesting display of oceanic bird-life. As indicating local conditions, it may be mentioned that the weather, too, was all we had anticipated; for four days the big battleship ."Kansas" ploughed into a gale which drove the head seas over our flying bridge, some forty feet in hight. The first point of interest upon leaving Melbourne was Mud Island, a small, round hill, rising from the waters of Port Philip Harbor; for this is one of the breeding haunts of the White-faced Petrel (Pelagodroma rna?'?a), a straggler to our own shores, and consequently included in the A? 0. U. List. Tho we passed close to the island, no birds were in sight, but we afterwards encountered them at sea. The breeding season is in November and December, and I obtained three eggs taken during these months in previous years. Reed and Davie, referring to eggs of this species from New Zealand, in the Crandall and Thayer collections, describe them as being heavily marked, for petrel eggs, with a "wreath" of spots;