904 



NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



ocean in tlie daytime — sometimes I found them ashore in a separate 

 burrow from that of the female. 



" After sunset thick clouds of these Petrels swarm round the cUffs, 

 uttering the melancholy soimd ' ohi ! ohi ! ' from which the natives name 

 it ' Ohi.' Each one circles round its burrow several times before it goes 

 down to it ; then they stop for a moment before entering. These birds 

 go to and from their burrows several times a night. When the young 

 is hatched, the female stops for a few days with her cliick in the 

 burrow; after that both parents leave evtry morning before sumise, 

 and fly to their haunts on the ocean. Returning after sunset they 

 circle round their burrows, then swoop down to the entrance and call : 

 when answered by the young bird they enter. If both birds come to 

 the burrow together, one stops outside until the other reappears. 

 When feccUng the young they make a whimpering noise. Male and 

 female rear the young together and defend them; but they are not so 

 vicious as Parkinson's Petrel. In February the young are full-giown 

 and very fat ; the natives go to collect and presei-ve them in tlic same 

 manner as I have ah-eady described in a fonner paper.' 



678. — Q^.STRELATA LEssoNi, Ganiot. — (630) 

 Procellaria Itucocephala, Forster. 



WHITE-HEADED PETREL. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 49. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 401. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Saunders: Trans. Roy. Soc, vol. 

 clxviii., p. 164 (1878); Hall: Ibis, p. 24 (igoo). 



Geographical Dktrihutiun. — Seas of Australia (except, possibly. 

 North), and Tasmania; also New Zealand and South Indian Ocean. 



Nes^t. — Externally a rabbit-like burrow, with the entrance generally 

 sparsely bestrewn with green shoots of vegetation. The ttmnel is short 

 and the large terminal chamber contains no special nest. (Eaton), save a 

 few gathered soft fibres and an occasional feather (Hall). 



J^'Jil'^- — '>-'liiteh, one ; inclined to oval in shape ; texture of shell 

 comparatively fine; .siu-face glossy; coloiu", dull white. Dimensions in 

 inches of examples from Kerguelen Island : (1) 2-8 x 1-89, {'1) 2-75 x 2-03, 

 (3) 2-7 X 1-96. The pair of eggs I previously described as E. lexsoni was 

 referable, as I aftei-wards ascertained, to Qi. rostrata (Peale Petrel), and 

 was taken on the Uen Islands, Now Caledonia, January, 1879. They 

 may bo described thus: shape, elliptically inclined; texture compara- 

 tively fine; surface slightly glos.sy ; colom-' pure white. Dimensions in 

 inches: (1) 2-55 x 1-7, (2) 2-45 x 1-63. 



Ohservations. — Gould gives an interesting note of the capture of 

 his first fine White-headed Petrel, which is worth quoting. He says: — 



