NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 875 



to Swain's Bay. On retiu-ning to Obsei-vatory Bay, only one bird was 

 heard one night. No eggs were found by anyone. " 



The reputed eggs of the Black-bcllied Stomi Petrel, collected on 

 ClilYy Lshmd, described iu the " Catalogiie of Nests :uid Eggs" of the 

 Australian Museum, p 361 (1889), and by myself (1883), aix- undoubtedly 

 those of the Diving Petrel ( I'elcatnoidi-s). I am able to prove tliis 

 from the fact that I aftei-wai-ds obtained similar eggs from the island, 

 accompanied by one of the parents in the flesh, for identification. 



665. — Cymodrom.\ gr.vllaria, Vieillot. — (648) 

 WHITE-BELLIED STORM PETREL. 



Figure. — Gould: Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 63. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 366. 



Geoyraphical Dtafrihutinn. — Seas of South Queensland, New South 

 Wales, Victoria, South and W^est Australia and Tasmania ; also seas of 

 Southern Hemisphere in general, northward to the coast of Florida. 



Nest and Eggs. — Undescribed. 



Observations. — This dark httle bird, another of " Mother Carey's 

 Chickens," with white imder-siu-face like its other tiny congeners, flies 

 chiefly over the surface of the Southern seas, but is probablv scarce in 

 Australian waters. 



Gould, who observed all the five (naming two) Australian species of 

 Storm Petrels at sea, grapliically describes their pecuhar action. It 

 must be a delight to witness, as he has done, any Stormy Petrel " fluttering 

 over the glassy surface of the, ocean dvu'ing calms with an easj', butterfly- 

 like motion of the wings, and buffeting and breasting with equal vigour 

 the crests of the loftiest waves of the storm ; at one moment descending 

 into thcii- deep troughs, and at the next rising with the utmost alertness 

 to their highest points, apparently from an impulse communicated as 

 much by striking the surface of the water with its webbed feet as by the 

 actions of the wings." 



Gould was imable to trace the breeding place of this Stoi-m Petrel, 

 nor are we any better off to-day, for its breeding haunt is still one of the 

 secrets of the seas. 



