NESTS AND EGGS Or AUSTRALIAN BINDS. gig 



latter is mucli less in size, in fact it is the smallest of the fom- species 

 foiuid ill Australian watere. However, in the mistake we erred in 

 very good company. 'I he eggs 1 received, tiiken 1885 from the Brothers 

 — islands in Cook Strait — where the birds commence to lay about 2Utli 

 October, are no doubt referable to the P. ariel, so the collector, 

 Mr. Percy Seymour-, vouches.* The late Mr. T. H. Potts described 

 them as P. turtur(desulatu!i)\ while no less an aiithority than Sir Walter 

 BuUer, at a. meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, held 29th 

 Januaiy, 1876, exhibited from the same locality (The Brothers) five 

 examples of the adult and young, together with a specimen of the egg, 

 described as P. hanhi. So much do doctors differ; and no wonder, 

 because the identification of the four species of these fairy-like oceanic 

 wanderers is exceedingly perplexing. 



The following is the " Key to the Species " of the four Prions, as 

 furnished in the ''British Museum Catalogue": — 



(a) Bill very wide (0-72 to 0-8 in.), edges of the maxilla 

 distinctly convex ; lamellas distinctly visible 



when the bill is shut ... ... ritttifiis. 



(h) Bill nanower (0-5 in.), but the edges of the maxilla 

 distinctly convex ; lamellse only visible near 

 the lictus of the closed bill... ... ... hmiksi. 



(c) Bill still naiTower, edges of the maxilla almost 



straight; lamellse invisible ... ... ... drxalatux. 



(dj Bill much smaller, more compressed, the uiigiiis 

 large, sides of the maxillae straight, and the 

 head, &c., paler blue-grey ... ... ... ariel. 



FAMILY— PELECANOIDID.^. 



690. — Pelecanoides urin.\trix, Gmelin. — (650) 

 DIVING PETREL. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 6o. 



Heferencc. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv., p. 437. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Campbell : Victorian Naturalist 

 (1887); Buller: Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 207 (1888); 

 North : Rec. Austn. Mus., vol. i., p. 122 (1S91). 



Geographical Distrihiitinn. — Seas of New South Wales, Victoria, 

 South Australia, and Tasmania ; also New Zealand and regions of Cape 

 Horn and Falkland Islands. 



Xefit. — A burrow, from 6 to 8 inches or more in length, underground, 

 or a crevice under a. ledge of rock, on islets oflt the coast. 



* Mr. Sevmourhas since sent me ahead for identification. 



