e 



QI. A-ESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



therefore, obtainable without much trouble. It had only just begiui 

 to lay when we fii'st landed (October). So long as its eggs continued 

 to be fresh the liberty men dug out as many as they could, cruelly 

 destroying the old birds, which they flung away in heaps; but when 

 most of the eggs became uneatable through incubation they abandoned 

 Petrel digging." 



Tlu-ough the courtesy of the lessee of Macquarie Island (Mr. Joseph 

 Hatch, of^Invercai-gill, New Zealand), Mr. J. R. Burton was permitted 

 dvu-ing bis spare time to collect some birds and eggs for my work. Th 

 collection contained several eggs, new to the Australasian region, of the 

 Blue Petrel. 



Mr. Bm-ton obsei-ved that the small biuTOWs of the Blue Petrels 

 were exceedingly nimierous iu the peaty gi-ound luider the tussock gi-ass, 

 anywhere on the lower levels^ but chiefly on the east coast. Tlie tuimel 

 is usually tortuous and invariably on the incline before the egg chamber, 

 which is about 6 inches in diameter, and lined on the floor with portions 

 of tussock grass, is reached. 



Mr. Burton's notes agi-ee with those made on Kerguelen by the 

 Rev. Mr. Eaton, that these Petrels commence to- lay about the end of 

 October, while fresh eggs may be gathered up to the end of November. 

 The fii-st young may be found in December. 



All the Blue Petrels quit Macquarie about the end of May. 



686. — Prion vittatus, Gmelin. — (644) 

 BROAD-BILLED DOVE PETREL OR PRION. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 55. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 432. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia, Hand- 

 book, vol. ii., p. 475 (1865) ; Travers : Trans. New Zealand 

 Inst., vol. v., p. 220 (1873). 



GeiKjraphiail Bistrihiitinii . — Seas of South Queensland, New South 

 Wales, Victoria, South and West Australia and Tasmania ; also New 

 Zealand and Southern Ocean, usually between 40 deg. and 60 deg. south 

 latitudes. 



Nest. — A cavity in a, clifi' on tlie sea shore, or in a- hole buiTowed 



in soft peaty soil on the summit of small islets. The biuTow, which 



takes a slightly oblique direction, is from H to 2 feet in length, and 

 usually straight (Travers). 



Effffx. — Clutch, one ; round oval in fonn : texture of shell compara^ 

 tively fine; surface minutely pitted, and without gloss; colour, pure 

 white. Dimensions in inches: 1-9 x 1-43. According to Travers: 

 1-95 xl-47; Gould: 2-0 x 1-5. 



