662 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



illusions. The interest of all was at once renewed; some started to 

 follow me, making little swift runs and stopping short to look. 

 Even after one had been shot they seemed rather startled than fright- 

 ened by the noise of the gun. A few flew oflf for a short distance, 

 but most remained, looking from me to the dead bird with great sur- 

 prise, so that I was enabled to secure four specimens without moving 

 from where I stood. 



On subsequent occasions several specimens were captured alive, by 

 hand, all that was necessary being to remain perfectly still, and feed 

 them with breadcrumbs until they ventured within reach. When 

 brought home, and let loose within-doors, they still showed no fear, 

 running about the room actively, eating freely what was given thera, 

 and, oddly enough, fighting fiercely among themselves (a habit which 

 I never observed an instance of when they were in the open air), but 

 never using their wing-spurs as weapons. We put several of them 

 into an extemporized coop, where they fought and pecked at the wood- 

 work all night, chirping the while so like chickens that I once got up, 

 thinking that some of our fowls had been fastened into the house. 

 When shut up in this way they bore the confinement very illy, beat- 

 ing themselves constantly against the bars of the cage, and pecking 

 fiercely at the woodwork. They would often stay around the house 

 for several days, however, when let loose, running with our chickens 

 and feeding with them like tame pigeons. One, whose wing had been 

 clipped, remained for a week or more, but finally wandered oif and was 

 killed by the great southern skua which fills the place of a hawk in 

 those regions. 



Cuvier,' on the authority of Vieillot, attributes to the larger species 

 a propensity for carrion, and a power of erecting the horny sheath, 

 neither of which characters was to be found in those which we ob- 

 served. The Australian species (identical with Chionis alba of Fors- 

 ter *) was named C. necrophaga by Vieillot on this accoimt, but our 

 chionis was one of the very few birds never found feeding on carrion. 

 It was quite omnivorous in its diet, taking with equal readiness bread, 

 vegetables, and fresh meat. The sheath was found to be firmly sol- 

 dered to the base of the upper mandible, and therefore could not 

 possibly be erectile. 



About the middle of December (midsummer in the antarctic re- 

 gion) the sheath-bills began to break up into pairs, and to show signs 

 of breeding. I never was so fortunate as to find a completed nest, 

 although I often observed the pairs frequenting the crevices of fallen 

 rocks, as if preparing to build. By the sealers, of whom several 

 visited the island diiring our stay, I was informed that they build in 

 the localities that I had attributed to them, constructing a nest of 

 grass-stems, and laying three party-colored eggs ; moreover, that they 

 are exceedingly dexterous in misleading the egg-hunter as to the 

 1 " Animal Kingdom," Loudon, 1849, p. 250. * Vide " Genera of Birds," Gray, he. dt. 



