NESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIKDS. 88l 



the kiud permission of Mr. R. C. Loftie, the Govcrmneut Resident, 

 Albany, Mr. G. Woods and myself arc permitted to land at Breaksea, 

 while a steam launch delivers stores for the lighthouse quarters. The 

 island supports chiefly a green, aromatic-scented, sciiib, nishes, tvissocky 

 grass, and a snaall variety of pig-face weed. We are kindly treated 

 by the lighthouse folk. Tlie children, with glee, soon pilot us to the 

 Mutton Bird burrows, where a small dog is sending clouds of sand in all 

 directions in his anxiety to withdi-aw the hidden bii-ds. He altogether 

 disappears, but soon reappears, hinder end and stvimpy tail foremost, 

 with a flapping croaking bird in his jaw.^. HuiTah ! the Fleshy-footed 

 Petrel — the bird I have been seeking for all round the coa.st. It is a 

 larger bird, and has not the black feet and legs of the Phillip Island 

 (Victoria) species. By the aid of the familiar Mutton Birders' crook we 

 rake out about a dozen of the single eggs from sandy burrows, 4 feet to 

 6 feet long, on the weather face of the island. It is now the second day 

 of the New Year, therefore the eggs were fai' incubated, nevertheless 

 they are valuable additions to my oological collection. 



The first eggs were noticed by the lighthouse keeper on 30th 

 November, and were plentiful on 7th December. The dates apply to 

 Mutton-bird Island, Tor Bay, while some eggs were also collected on the 

 mainland adjacent. This is the fh'st instance I ajn aware of, of any 

 species of Petrels laying on the mainland of Australia, excepting perhaps 

 the common Mutton Bird, which, legend says, years ago used to breed 

 on the Back Beach of SoiTento. Petrels invariably resort to isolated 

 rocks or islands for the purpose of breeding. 



The following season the principal lighthouse keeper on that island 

 was kind enough to forwai-d me additional data. He observed that the 

 Fleshy-footed Petrel appeared the first week of September, and fresh 

 eggs were taken during the first week in December. Specimens he 

 forwarded wei'e dated the lOtli of that month. 



Sir Walter Duller states that the Fleshy-footed Petrel is compara- 

 tively common off New Zealand, and breeds in large colonies on some of 

 the small islands near the coast. He received a pair of live birds from 

 Captain Fairchild, who obtained them on White Island, Bay of Plenty, 

 where, it is stated, they were breeding at the beginning of November, 

 but it is not stated whether eggs were taken. Probably not, or else 

 Sir Walter would have described them. 



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