8~^ NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



664. — Uymodkoma melanogastek, Gould. — (647) 



BLACK-BELLIED STORM PETREL. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 62. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 364. 



Geoyrapliical Distribution. — Seas of Australia and Tasmauia ; also 

 Nevi^ Zealand and the Southern Ocean in general, northward to the Bay 

 of Bengal and to the Tropie'of Cancer in tlie Atlantic. 



Ned and Eyys. — Undescribed. 



Observations. — This dusky-coloured (save its snow-white upper tail 

 coverts and flanks) small Petrel is a flier cliiefly of the Southern Ocean, 

 but ventnres up to the Tropics. 



Gould's first acquaintance with this sjjecies commenced on the 12th 

 August, 1839, .when, off Cape AguLhas, on his voyage to Australia; from 

 that date it was almost daily observed during the voyage across the 

 South Indian Ocean until he anived at Tasmania, 19th September. 

 Its niunbers were foimd to gradually increase from the neighboiu-hood 

 of the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam to the termination of the 

 voyage. In March, 1840, diu-ing his passage home, he agaizi met with 

 the Black-beUied Storm Petrel in great niunbers between the eastern 

 coast of Australia and New Zealand. 



On Kerguelen, and referring to I'roccUaria grallaria (melanogaster), 

 the Rev. A. E. Eaton states: — "Occasionally late in the even- 

 ing and dm-ing the night, a piercingly slu-ill piping note, repeated singly, 

 at intervals of fom- to six seconds, used to be heaa'd on the hills about 

 Observatory Bay. Generally the soiuid changed its direction, shoiwing 

 that the bird which uttered it was flying. This call might be imitated 

 on a piccolo fife in the key of G or F. In its complete form it consists 

 of a series of single notes, separated by pauses of four seconds or more, 

 followed by a jerky .succession of notes m the same tone. 



" One night the sound was traced to a crevice in a chff beneath an 

 immovable rock. The place was marked by a pile of stones, and visited 

 early the next morning. While efiorts were being made to remove the 

 rock, the bird within the recess became alarmed, and uttered a cry 

 somewhat like that of a Kestrel Hawk in its tone, but not neiu'ly so loud. 

 On another night the soimd was followed up to a hill. Even' now and 

 then the bird ceased piping, but it re-commcnccd whenever the call was 

 imitated with the lips. Its nook was therefore easily dLscovered ; it was 

 in a terrace on the hill-side, under ai piece of rock. The stone was pulled 

 away, the nesting place laid open, and two birds in it disclosed, of wliich 

 one escaped. The female was caught, and she proved, to be an 0. melano- 

 gaster. A third pair was caught in a slope of broken rocks near the top 

 of the hill, a few nights later, in a similai- way. Their nesting place liad 

 been used before, as there were fragments of an old egg slull in the lioUow 

 that they had prepared for laying in. After this, I went for three weeks 



