EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 75 



THE WHITE-BREASTED PETREL. 



(Pelagodroma marina.) 



An example of this southern species was picked up dead on 

 Walney Island in November, 1890. It is an inhabitant of the 

 Australian Seas, but appears to frequent the Atlantic Ocean also 

 as far north as the Canary and the Salvage Islands. On the latter 

 Mr. Ogilvie-Grant procured several eggs in 1895. These are white, 

 more or less finely spotted, and often zoned towards the larger 

 end, with dark red and purplish dots. Some few are equally 

 spotted all over the shell, while one is almost devoid of mark- 

 ings. Axis, 148 to 135 inch ; diam., 1*08 to l'O inch. 



THE FORK-TAILED PETREL. 



{Oceanodroma lencorrhoa.)* 



Plate 20, Fig. 7. 



The Fork- tailed Petrel breeds on St. Kilda and on other islands 

 of the outer Hebrides, also on the Blasquet Islands, off Co. 

 Kercy, where the eggs have been found by my friend Mr. R. J. 

 Ussher. Besides these British localities, the species is found 

 nesting on the islands of the Bay of Fundy, and again in the 

 Kurile and Aleutian Islands. 



In St. Kilda, Dixon says, the nesting holes are made in the 

 soft peaty soil, and it is very easy to unearth the bird. Sometimes 

 the hole has two entrances. The nest is made of dry grass, both 

 round stalks and flat blades, a scrap or two of moss, and a few 

 bits of lichen and roots. Many nests are placed close together 

 (an underground colony in fact), and he found half-a-dozen nests 

 within a radius of eight or nine yards. 



The Fork-tailed Petrel lays only one egg, which is pure white, 

 with a more or less distinct zone of very minute specks round 

 the large end. The overlying spots are reddish-brown, and the 

 underlying ones slightly greyer. Sometimes a few indistinct 

 streaks or dashes of colour, often darker than the spots, occur on 

 the large end of the egg, which varies in length from 135 to 1*25 

 inch, and in breadth from l'O to 0'92 inch. 



* Proccllaria leachi — Seebohm, Brit B., III., p. 448. 



