NESTS AND EGGS OE AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. Q13 



685. — Halob.ena C'ffiRri.KA, fliiieliii. — (634) 

 BLUE PETREL . 



Eigure.—Go\i\d: Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 5: 



Reference.— Czi. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 431. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs.Saxmdeis : Trans. Roy. Soc, vol. 



clxviii., p. 165 (1878I ; Kidder and Coues : Smithsonian 



Miscell. Coll., vol. xiii., p. 17 (187.S). 



Genf/rnphirn! Di.^tnhufion.SoRS of New Soixth Wales, Victoria, 

 South and West Australia, and Tasmania ; also New Zealand and 

 Southern Ocean generally, between 40 deg. and 60 deg. south latitudes. 



jVe.?«. — A deep, tortuous burrow in a hill side, near the sea, exca- 

 vated beneath dense masses of vegetation, and often several feet in 

 length (Kidder &: Coues). 



Effg.'!. — Clutch, one; roundish oval or elliptical in form; texture of 

 shell comparatively fine; siu-face without gloss; colour, white, usually 

 stained with dirt. Dimensions in inches : (1) 2-1 x 1-43, (2) l-gS x 1-42, 

 (3) 1-92 X 1-48, (4) 1-9 X 1-48. 



Oh.ifriritiiiii>:. — Gould observes that this bird may be distinguished 

 from evei7 other of the smaller Petrels by the conspicuous white tips 

 of the centre tail-feathei-s. It is a very powerful flier, and he obsei'ved 

 it in every part of the ocean he travelled between the 40th and 55th 

 degrees of south latitude, both in the Atlantic and Pacific. However, 

 the bird is rare in Australian collections. 



According to the testimony of the British and American Transit of 

 Venus Expeditions to Kerguelen, 1874-5, the Blue Petrel had probably 

 begim to pair by the 13th September, when two birds, male and female, 

 were usually found in each burrow during the day. Eggs were first 

 found plentiful on the 23rd October, young began to hatch 12th Nov- 

 ember, and a nestling almost fully-fledged was killed 9th February. 

 Newly-hatched young have bill and toes slaty-blue, with apparently 

 pale-yellowish webs and brownish-black claws. 



The Rev. A. E. Eaton wrote : " The resemblance between this 

 Petrel and the Prion desnlafns extends even to their ' coo.' Their calls 

 undergi'ound are so much ahke, that on hearing one it is difiicult to say 

 to which of the two species the bird cooing should be referred without 

 digging it up for inspection, and their tone is very similar in sound 

 to the cooing of some foreign Doves. But their calls duiing flight are 

 very different from one another. 



" The comparative immunity of this species from the ravages of the 

 men was due partly to its commencing to lay eggs later than the former, 

 and partly to its nests being less easy of access than those of that Petrel. 

 For H . c<xrulea is in the habit of biuTowing in Azorrlln growing upon 

 the dn' soft loam where no obstacles impede its progress ; its eggs are, 

 58 



