208 A NATURALIST ON THE " CHALLENGER." 



(CEstrelata Lessoni),& large Procellarid, as big as a pigeon, white 

 and brown and grey in colour. It makes a much larger hole 

 than the Prion, six inches in diameter, and long in proportion. 

 At the end is a round chamber with a slight elevation in the 

 centre, where the nest is somewhat raised, with a deeper passage 

 all round ; at least, I saw this in two nests. The old bird is 

 very savage when pulled out. It makes a shrill cry, and bites 

 hard, the sharp decurved tip of the upper mandible being driven 

 right through a man's finger if he is not careful in handling the 

 bird. The egg is white, and about the size of a hen's. 



Another petrel, Majaquens cequinoctialis, which also is often 

 to be seen cruising after the ship, but then always solitary, 

 is called the " Cape Hen " by ordinary sailors, and " Black 

 Night Hawk" by the whalers. It makes a hole, larger a good 

 deal than that of the Mutton-bird, and nearly always with its 

 mouth opening on a small pool of water, or in a very damp 

 place. The hole is deep under the ground and very long, two 

 vards or more. The birds seem to make their holes in certain 

 places in company. At one place, on the shores of Greenland 

 Harbour, I found a number of such holes, all within a small 

 area. The bird utters a peculiar prolonged and high pitched 

 cry, either when dug into on the nest and handled, or on going 

 into the hole and finding its mate there. 



I saw once about a dozen of these birds swimming together 

 at Eoyal Sound, but usually they hawk over the sea singly, with 

 a long sweeping flight like that of the albatross. The young 

 are like round balls of grey down, and, as might be expected, 

 have the nostrils much more widely open than the adults. 



Further we found a Stormy Petrel (Oceanitis sp.). It makes a 

 short small hole in the turf at the verge of the cliffs,, and lays a 

 white egg, with slight red speckles at one end, large in size in 

 proportion to the bird. 



A more interesting petrel is the diving Procellarid (Pelcca- 

 noides urinatrix), which is a petrel that has given up the 

 active aerial habits of its allies, and has taken to diving, and has 

 become specially modified by natural selection to suit it for this 

 changed habit, though still a petrel in essential structure. The 

 habits of the bird, which occurs in the Straits of Magellan, are 



