122 



Island. Tho first eg£f was found on the ?»lst of October. Thoir 

 hiirrows are about as small in diameter as tlie holes V)f Bank 

 .Martins (Colylr. riparia) or Kingfishers (AJc'do ispula). They 

 are made in dry banks and slopes where the ground is easily pene- 

 trable, and terminate in a large chamber on whose fioor the egg 

 is deposited. There is no specially constructed nest. Some of 

 the burrows are branched, but the branches ai"e without terminal 

 enlargements, and do not appear to be put to any use by the birds. 

 Before the egg is laid, both of the parents may be found in the 

 nest-chamber, and niay often be heard moaning in the day-time'; 

 but when the females begin to sit, their call is seldom heard, ex- 

 cepting at night, when the male in his flight to and from the hole, 

 and his mate on the nest make a considerable noise." 



Mr. Howard Saunders,* wiio described the eggs of this species 

 obtained there amongst those of other birds frequenting the 

 Australian Coast, writes : — "Ten eggs are all pure white, except 

 where peat-stained, nearly equal at each end, or but veiy sliglitly 

 pointed. himensions ]■') x 1 -1 inch." 



Sir Walter Laurie JUillerf in his Birds of New Zealand, records 

 that " Mr. Burton found this Petrel breeding on Stephens Island 

 in Cook's Strait. It also l)i'eeds on Karewa Island (oft' Tauranga) 

 on the small islands of the Great Barrier, and on the HtMi and 

 Chickens." 



In Australian waters this l)ird is most fre(iuently found between 

 Victoria and Tasmania, likewise in the seas washing the shoi-es of 

 South Australia and New South Wales, but in neither of the 

 latter localities is it so plentiful as in Bass's Straits and the 

 Tasmanian waters. The eggs of this species have been known to 

 Australian oologists for some years past from numei'ous specimens 

 taken on the smaller islands of Bass's Sti-aits, they show no differ- 

 ence either in size and shape from those previously described by 

 various authors. They are rounded ovals in form, some specimens 

 being slightly pointed at the smaller end, otliers being Tiearly 

 equal in si/e at each end, pure white when newly laid, but like 

 tliose of other members of the Pr(>c.pJJari<hi\ soon becoming more 

 or less stained and soiled as they approacli the time of hatching. 

 Average specimens measure as follows : (A' I'b"^ \ I •!'."> inch : 

 (Ji) 1-0 X 1-2 inch ; (C) \■:^■^ x 1-2 inch. 



These birds were recently found breeding on Noith-East Island 

 by the memViers of a party from the Field Naturalist's Club of 

 Victoria, who paid a visit to the Kent Group in Bass's Straits, 

 during November 1890; they were too late ]iowe\er to obtain 

 any eggs the burrows at that time containing only young birds 

 nearly fledged. 



* Howard Saunders, Account of the collections made in Kert;-nelon's 

 liand and liodrif^uoz duiia>^- tlic Transit of Venus Expcilitions in the 

 year 1871-5, p. 171-, (1879). 



t BuUer, Birds of New Zealand, Vol. ii.. Second .'dition, p. 207, (1888). 



