MORE ABOUT MOLLYMAWKS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 379, 27 September 1946, Page 30

MORE ABOUT MOLLYMAWKS

| Written for "The Listener" |

by

J.

H.

SORENSEN

*brows" taken during Cook’s first voyage in the South Indian Ocean was undoubtedly a sooty albatross. The description, however, might be applied to most, if not all, the mollymawks for they, too, have a narrow band of white feathers fh the region of the eye. The miollymawks generally fave white or light'grey plumage on, their heads and, in consequence, the "eyebrows" do not show up as.they do against the darker plumage of the -sooty .albatross. What does ‘show up. on some of -the species is the, presence of a patch of darker plumage just above the eye. This gives the birds the appearance of wearing’’a heavy ‘frown. "Quizzical" and "sneering" are other terms I have heard applied, but frowning seems more appropriate. Only from a point of view of ap~ pearance, however, for of all sea-birds, the mollymawks and their larger’ rela-. tives the albatrosses proper are the. most friendly and confiding towards human beings. Perhaps, as has been claimed, they are merely stupid; but I prefer to think of them as being quiet-and. fear-. less thtéugh their lack of contact with the worst sides of human nature. Their trustfulness, the hatural way they behaved when studied quietly, led me to admire ‘and. respect these beautiful birds. "albatross with white eye-

, Several very large breeding colonies exist, at the northern .end of Campbell Island and here. the black-browed and grey-headed mollymawks live and breed during the season. The black-browed bird has a head almost wholly white and the beak is pinkish yellow. The grey-headed bird is obviously named for it has the whole of the head and neck soft dovegrey in shade, The beak is mainly black with the top yellow, as is also the lower half of the lower mandible. It seems rather strange that these two different. species should associate in the same colonies. Sometimes a colony is almost wholly composed of one of thé species; but somewhere about the area, on the edges or even in the middle, will be found a small group of the others.