8^2 N£STS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



Mr. Seymom-, in communicating with Sir Walter Buller, sent tlie follow- 

 ing notes to him : " I foiuid a number of nests of this Petrel ou Tomahawk 

 Island, Otago Peninsula, on the IStli Januaiy. The birds had been 

 previously disturbed and their eggs taken, and they were, therefore, 

 unusually late in breeding, for I have, on another occasion, obtained 

 fresh eggs as early as November 23rd. The nests were situated in 

 biu-rows, 18 inches deep, and resembling rat-holes. Five nests contained 

 one yovmg bird each, and the other five one egg each, on which the 

 female was sitting in eveiy case. I was able to presei-ve only two of 

 the eggs, as in the others the young bird inside broke the shell before 

 I reached home." 



I hardly agree \nih Mr. Seymour that taking eggs nearly incubated 

 in the middle of January was late. They would be freshly laid about 

 the 20th to 23rd November, the usual date for many Petrels. 



The Biitish Traoasit of Venus Expedition did not appear to find any 

 of these eggs on Kerguelen. The first birds were found by the American 

 party on the 28th and 29tli October (1874), and were dug out by dogs 

 from small burrows under climips of Azorella. A pair, captured on a 

 later date, was found under a. tussock, not two yards above high-water 

 mark, on the beach, imder a high cliff. Eggs were first found 12th 

 December, under chmips of grass, &c., which seemed to afford sufficient 

 protection to the nests in a bit of swamjsy lowland near the sea. The 

 male only was observed sitting. 



683. — Pelagodroma marina, Latham. — (6-lUj 

 Prorelhi7-ia frtijdta, Linnseus. 



WHITE-FACED STORM PETREL. 



Figure. — GoiiH : Birds of Auslralia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 6i. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. .\xv., p. 362. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — dould : Birds of Australia (1848) 



also Handbook, 'vol. ii., p. 482 (1865) ; North : Austn. .Mus. 



Cat., p. 362 (1S89) ; Campbell : Victorian Naturalist (1894) ; 



Baring and Grant : Zoologist, p. 412 (1895). 



Getigraphical Distrihiitioii. — Seas of New South Wales, Victoria, 

 Soath and West Australia and Tasmania ; also New Zealand and Southern 

 Hemisphere in general, northwards to the Canary Islands and British 

 Isles (accidental) and the coast of Massachusetts. 



Xfxt. — A rat-like buiTow, extending undergi'ound for about U feet, 

 on a rock or islet covered with short herbage. 



Efjt/s. — Clutch, one; elliptical in .shape; texture of shell com- 

 paratively fine ; surface occasionally has a faint trace of gloss ; coloiu-, 

 pure white, but about fifty per cent, have numerous fine brownish freckles 

 about the apex. Dimensions in inches: (1) 1-45 x 1-05, (2) 1-45 x 1-0, 

 (3) 1-41 X 1-08. (4) 1-37 x 1-02. (r.) 1-35 y 1-04. 



