80 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Thalassoeca glacialoides, Smith. (The Silvery-grey Petrel.) 

 Mr. F. Sandager writes to rne of this rare species (under 

 date of 1st October), " To-day, as I was going along the beach 

 at Moeraki, a species of Procellarius came in. By means of 

 your ' Manual ' I had no difficulty in identifying it as P. 

 glacialoides." 



Puffirms assimilis, Gould. (The Allied Shearwater.) 



Specimen in the flesh received from the Hauraki Gulf has 

 greenish-grey feet, with yellow interdigital webs, marked with 

 black on the outer edge ; bill bluish-black. 



Puffirms gavia, Forst. (Forster's Shearwater.) 



Of this apparently rare Petrel I have received several 

 fresh specimens from Mokohinou Island. Bill blackish-brown, 

 changing to grey on lower mandible ; legs and feet yellow, 

 changing to blackish-brown on outer side of tarsus and along 

 edge of outer toe ; claws and interdigital webs black. 



Majaqueus sequinoctialis, Linn. (The 'Stinker' of 



Whalers.) 



In a former note I mentioned that the officers of the 

 "Hinemoa" had described to me a large Petrel as existing 

 on the Auckland Islands, which is undoubtedly this bird. Dr. 

 Kidder, in the paper already referred to, gives some interesting 

 particulars respecting it. He says, " A single specimen was 

 dug up by the dog on the 12th October, from a very deep burrow 

 under a clump of Azorella, but none others were seen until 

 the 15th November, when they suddenly appeared in consider- 

 able numbers. On the 16th December I dug up specimens 

 with eggs, and frequently thereafter. They nest in very deep 

 burrows, with almost always a little pool of water at their 

 entrance, and keep up an incessant squealing while the dog is 

 digging for them, very like the sound of the water-whistle toys, 

 or ' whistling coffee-pots,' sold on the street-corners. The 

 note is, in other words, very shrill, and constantly trilling. 

 They fight the dog more bravely than any other Petrels, gene- 

 rally coming out of the burrow hanging to his ear, and keeping 

 him off very successfully on the open ground. The name 

 ' Stinker ' is fully warranted by the rank odour emitted by the 

 bird, and is given on the authority of the whalers on the 

 schooner ' Emma Jane.' Captain Fuller, however, of the 

 schooner ' Eoswell King,' a very careful observer, tells me 

 that the Stinker is a much larger bird, and that it nests on the 

 ridges of the high hills, not in burrows, and very late in the 

 season. If so, I have never seen it. The egg is single and 

 white. One of the first birds dug up by the dogs after our 

 arrival, on the 15th September, was a large Petrel, covered 



