The Nesting Places of Two Albatrosses in the South Seas
The Nesting Places of Two Albatrosses in the South Seas
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology has recently had a gift from Captain John Bollons, New Zealand Government Marine Service, of a number of eggs of Australasian sea birds.
Captain Bollons, who is well known in New Zealand as a practical ornithologist and careful observer, in transmitting these eggs points out some of the breeding differences between the albatross peculiar to the New Zealand seas, the Royal (Diomedea regia), and the Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans). On the eastern side of Adams Island, one of the Auckland Group, 300 miles south of New Zealand, only D. regia nests. Four miles away on the same island, but to the southwest, only the nests of D. exulans are to be found. On Adams Island the latter bird nests four or five weeks earlier than regia. On Antipodes Island are found only the nests and eggs of exulans, none of the Royal. On the other hand, Campbell Island is the chief nidification ground for many regia; only a few nests of exulans have been found there. The eggs of the two species resemble one another; those of D. regia are, however, the larger.
Casey A. Wood
Chicago, Illinois, December 8, 1928
