178 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUIM. 



from out of which peeped a pair of beady black eyes situated behind a slender 

 black bill which was surmounted by the long tube nostrils peculiar to the 

 petrel family. Most nestlings were to be found more advanced, however. In 

 many the abdomen had become covered with white feathers interspersed with 

 down, the tail was beginning to show, and the primary wing feathers were 

 prominent. It was noticed, too, that the white abdominal feathers had ex- 

 tended up to and over the pectoral nniscles, wliilst the markings from wliich 

 the bird derives its vernacular name were showing up strongly through a few 

 threads of down. In the next stage of growth the whole of the feathers were 

 more strongly developed. The down, which freely covered the wings, back, 

 flanks, nape, and crown in the previous stage, had almost disappeared, whilst 

 the general contoiir of the burrowling resembled that of its parents, altliough 

 it was still very fat. These birds had just been deserted by their parents 

 and left to their own devices. Whilst lying out in the rookery at night some 

 fully fledged birds were observed running and flapping about the rookery, 

 stimulated by the pangs of hunger. It is owing to this that they gain sufficient 

 muscular development both in the legs and in the wings to enable them in 

 about a week's time to fly away one night with the adult birds, who no doubt 

 assist and encourage them. At sea they use the feet almost as much as their 

 wings, as they go tripping along over the billows. It is owing to this last- 

 named fact that the members of the family to which they belong have been 

 called petrels, after the Apostle Peter. 



Up to the final stage the parents feed their offspring nightly with about a 

 teaspoonful of fishy, oily paste, principally composed of " whale's food," a 

 small species of crustacean found floating on the surface of the ocean. This 

 they regurgitate, and when they enter their burrows a faint purring note of 

 welcome is made by the nestling, evidently in anticipation of its evening meal. 

 Opening its mouth wide over the head of its young one, which forthwith thrusts 

 its beal\: into that of the adult and opens it, the parent bird brings up the 

 dainty and juicy contents of its stomach. With this meal the young one has 

 to be content until next night, but as it lives an indolent life, quietly ensconced 

 in the cool shade of its burrow, it waxes exceeding fat, so much so that in 

 some parts of the South Sea Islands, where these birds also nest, the natives, 

 passing a dry rush through a dead young one's body, form thereby an excellent 

 candle. 



Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant (1896) describes a breeding colony, which 

 he found on the Salvages near Madeira, as follows: 



On the afternoon of our arrival on Great Salvage we found an egg of this 

 bird in what we at first mistook for a rabbit burrow, but it was unfortunately 

 broken by one of the men. This, however, opened our eyes, and we subsequently 

 found that large colonies of the white-breasted petrel were breeding on the 

 flat top of the island, In burrows dug out in the sandy ground, and partly con 

 cealed by the close-growing ice plant. It was very unpleasant walking over 

 these breeding grounds, which occupied considerable areas, for the ground was 

 honeycombed witli burrows in every direction, and gave way at each step, 

 one's boots rapidly becoming full of sand. By thrusting one's arm into one 

 hole after another, we soon procured a fine series of specimens, accompanied 

 in most cases by an egg, for we had evidently hit off the breeding season, and 

 most of the birds, having laid their single egg, were beginning to set. Most of 

 the eggs were white, more or less finely spotted, and often zoned toward the 



