LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAlSr PETRELS AND PELICANS. 51 



Mr. Eobert Hall (1900), who found the pintado petrel breeding on 

 Kergiielen Island, says : 



At Accessible Bay (Betsy Cove) on Febrviary 7th I observed four nests, each 

 one vpith one younj? partially covered vpith down. The nests were in tlie cavities 

 of a rough cliff and were smply hollows, without any attempt to place weeds in 

 them. I saw adults sitting in a sheltered nook, without egg or young ; and one 

 of these birds was placing little stones, one by one, around it with the bill, as 

 if to make the nesting place comfortable. The instinct of the bird evidently is 

 to collect something to make a nest, but it is almost lost, and the few stones in 

 all the nests were of no use, so far as I could see. These cavities or grottoes 

 (approximately 6x3x3 feet) were about 50 feet above the sea level, and by 

 stooping I could get inside them, except in one case. A Tttle climb brought me 

 to an old bird, which clucked and made its trill ; and I surprised another on its 

 nest, but it did not fly, though it vigorously defended its young, and jumped back- 

 ward and forward. I kept a respectful distance from the young one, as it 

 had an unknown supply of oily matter. In each of these nests was a young 

 bird, partially in down, about as large as the parents, and in the day time 

 each of them was attended by one parent. The young may be described thus : — 

 Length 12.75 inches; down, generally grayish above, grayisli white below; bill 

 black. 



Pluinages. — Mr. Clarke (1906) adds the following notes on the 

 development of the plumage : 



The chick in down, five days old, taken on Januarj' 18th, 1904, is slate-grey 

 above, and paler and sooty on the under surface. 



A young bird obtained at Saddle I. on February 4tli, 1903, has the head and 

 body clad in down, with feathers developing on the wings and scapulars. 

 The down on the upper surface is sooty (darker on tlie head and cheeks) 

 and paler and greyish on the under parts. The wing-quills, the largest of 

 which are 2 inches in length, are black, some of them with the inner webs 

 white towards the base. The feathers of the scapulars are black and white. 

 There are no signs of tail feathers. Wing 8 inches. 



The mature birds from the South Orkneys and tlie Weddell Sea present 

 two types of plumage. The first of these, which perhaps represents old birds 

 in weathered dress, were captured towards the end of summer (in February) ; 

 and in them the dark portions of the plumage are blackisli with a brovi^n 

 east, the head alone being black; the feathers of the mantle have whitish 

 bases; and the marginal and lesser coverts show less white than in the next 

 form. In the second type the dark portion of the plumage is slate-black, and 

 the bases of the feathers of the mantle are dusky. Specimens in this phase 

 were obtained early in the autumn (late in March), and are either in new 

 or first plumage. A male captured on the nesting ledges on December 3rd, 

 1903, is intermediate in plumage between these two forms. 



Food. — Mr. John Treadwell Nichols writes to me that: 



This species is preeminent among the southern birds for the eagerness with 

 which it picks up scraps from the galley, and its readiness to take a hook 

 baited with the standard salt pork. After being on deck a few minutes it 

 regurgitates a rank oil. Like its relatives it usually comes about a ship most 

 fearlessly in heavy weather. As the wind moderates, I have seen a little 

 flock of them lose their appetite, settle on the water and busy themselves 

 preening their feathers, only rising from time to time to catch up with the 

 ship. Some bathed more or less after the manner of land birds. 



