3G3 puffinin;e. 



actually sailed through them from Flinder's Island to the heads of the Tamar (Tasmania), a 

 distance of eighty miles. They shortly after separate into dense flocks and finally leave the 

 coast." 



'l"he following extract is made from Flinder's Voyage" respecting this species, also in Bass 

 Strait: — "A large flock of gannets was observed at daylight, . . . and they were followed by such a 

 number of the sooty petrels as we had never seen e(;ualled. There was a stream of from fifty to 

 eighty yards in depth, and of three hundred yards, or more, in breadth ; the birds were not scattered, 

 but were flying as compactly as a free movement of their wings seemed to allow; and during a 

 full hour and n hn If ihis stream of petrels continued to pass without interruption, at a rate little 

 inferior to the swiftness of the pigeon. On the lowest computation, I think the number could not 

 have been less than a hundred millions." In a footnote is added: — "Taking the stream to 

 have been fifty yards deep by three hundred in width, and that it moved at the rate of thirty 

 miles an hour, and allowing nine cubic yards of space to each bird, the number would amount 

 to 151,500,000. The burrows required to lodge this quantity of birds would be 75,750,000; and 

 allowing a square yard to each burrow, they would cover something more than eighteen and a 

 half geographic si]uare miles of ground." 



To the east the range of the Short-tailed Petrel extends to some of the islands of the seas 

 washing the shores of South Australia and Western Australia, to the north to the Tasman Sea, 

 and New South Wales, but in largely decreased numbers. In New South Wales waters, in 

 normal seasons, it is a comparatively rare species, odd specimens being obtained occasionally as 

 far north as Bondi, Manly and Newport, but I have never seen it except on one extraordinary 

 occasion, when in 1895 't appeared in countless numbers in a dying condition off the New South 

 Wales coast, the beaches from Newport to Wollongong I found literally strewn with thousands 

 of their bodies. 



By a clerical or typographical error in the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," | 

 the central rectines are made to appear g-2 inches in length, instead of 3-4 inches. 



The food of this species consists of marine algsp, Crustacea, medusa^ persumably small squid, 

 also small fish. 



From Abbotsford near Melbourne, Mr. Joseph Gabriel wrote me: — "You may remember 

 that sometime in 1896 you asked me if I had noticed that large numbers of Mutton-birds 

 (Puffinus tanuirnstris) had been found dead on the beaches of Bass Strait and other places, also if 

 I could in any way account for it. When on Stack Island, on the 26th October, i8g6, we were 

 very much surprised at seemg the birds coming in to clean out their holes (September being the 

 usual month) and we noticed their emaciated appearance. Some two or three years afterwards, 

 I was conversing with Captain Anderson of the S.S. "QueensclfT," who had also noticed the 

 dead birds, and he at once put it down to the scarcity of 'Whale food' (crustaceans) in the 

 Strait that year, as he says this is their particular food." 



The Short-tailed Petrel is also found in numbers throughout the Tasman Sea and eastwards 

 to New Zealand. It is not, however, found on Lord Howe Island, having been erroneously 

 recorded from that locality instead of Puffinus carncipcs. 



Some idea of the source of revenue this bird is to Tasmania and Victoria may be gathered 

 from the agents, that many thousands of fish-baskets or barrels of fresh eggs are shipped to Laun- 

 ceston, Ilobart, and Melbourne. In the last named city they are chiefly used by biscuit-bakers. 

 Although in no way resembling them, at a local show in 18S3, not thirty miles from Phillip 

 Island, a dozen of them were awarded first prize for "Duck" eggs. The feathers are collected, 

 the young birds pressed in large cauldrons and rendered down for oil, and the adult birds are 

 skinned, gutted, split open and smoked, and may be seen exposed for sale in the poulterer's and 



♦ Flinder's Voy., Vol. I., p. clxx. t Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXV., p. 3S9 (1S96). 



