368 PUFFININ,"!! 



The distribution of the Flesh-footed Petrel is a peculiar one. Gould records it "over the 

 seas bordering the southern and western coasts of Australia, and resorts among other places to 

 the small islands off Cape Leuwin for the purposes of breeding." The late Mr. George Masters, 

 while collecting on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, brought back with him 

 eggs taken on the 7th December, 1868, on Breaksea Island, lying off Albany, Western Australia, 

 and Mr. Tom Carter has received both live birds and eggs taken on the same island at the latter 

 end of 1910, which he forwarded to the Australian Museum. Mr. Bernard H. Woodward, 

 the Director of the Western Australian Museum, has also kindly sent me for examination a 

 young one, taken by Mr. J. T. Tunny from a nesting-burrow on Remark Island, Western 

 Australia, on the ifith April, 1906. The late Sir William Buller records it from New Zealand,' 

 taking his description of this species " from a pair taken on White Island, where they were 

 breeding, and sent to me alive at the beginning of November." In Australia I have only 

 e.xamined specimens obtained in Western Australian waters. There is no properly authenti- 

 cated record of its being obtained on the islets and seas of Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, 

 New South Wales or Queensland. It is remarkable that it does not occur anywhere on the 

 coastal waters or islets of Eastern Australia, and yet it is found breeding in large numbers on 

 Lord Howe Island, which is only three hundred miles due east from Port Stephens, and four 

 hundred and twenty miles north-east of Sydney. 



Probably one of the hrst to refer to it from Lord Howe Island was Mr. R. Etheridge, then 

 Patentologist, now Curator of the Australian Museum, in his " General Zoology of Lord 

 Howe Island," where he gives the general results of the observations made by the collecting 

 party from the Australian Museum who visited the island in August and September, 1887. 

 He remarks : 1^ — "The collection acquired during our stay at Lord Howe Island, through our 

 own efforts and those of Mr. G. Nichols, comprising about two hundred skins, has been 

 examined and named by Dr. Ramsay, and although we were not fortunate enough to obtain an 

 equal number, several birds were met with, or seen, not mentioned in the list referred to." Dr. 

 Ramsay first referred to the " Mutton bird " of Lord Howe Island as Pujfinus hvcvicaudiis in his 

 "Tabular List of Australian Birds," and under this name it is referred io by Mr. Etheridge and 

 by myself in the description of its eggs. | 



Referring to the Petrels Mr. Etheridge remarks:? — "The large species, P. hrcvicaudus, 

 fre(juents the west coast of the main island, and forms for itself extensive rookeries extending 

 inland from the edge of the cliff, or the beach at high-water mark, as the case may be, for a 

 considerable distance. Good examples of these " rookeries " may be seen at Clear Place Point, 

 the head of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and at Ned's Beach. I^egular runs, or pathways, 

 are found through the long grass or scrub, by the constant locomotion of the birds to and from 

 the sea. At these places the burrows consist of vertical or somewhat obliijue funnel-shaped holes 

 or depressions scooped out in the loose sandy or rich loamy soil, as the case may be. At the 

 Clear Place Point and the Valley of the Shadow these excavations occupy acres in extent, some 

 of the burrows, instead of mere depressions, consisting of underground tunnels extending inwards 

 horizontally for as much as three feet. The birds begin to arrive in September, and become 

 plentiful in October, when they proceed to clear out the old holes ; and we were informed by 

 Captain T. Nichols that the din at night, when this is going on, and fighting that takes place 

 for the possession of favoured spots by rival claimants, is something deafening. According to 

 the same informant, laying is commenced about 28th November regularly, and completed on 

 1st December, the young after hatching being fed and tended until April, when they are allowed 

 to cater for themselves." 



In October, 1910, when on a visit to Lord Howe Island, Mr. William Whiting piloted a 

 small party from Sydney from his house near Middle Beach to the above-mentioned breeding 



* Bds. New Zeal., 2nd ed,, Vol. II., p. 234 (1S88). t Gen. Zool. Lord Howe Island, p. 8. 

 J Gen. Zool. Lord Howe Island, p. 47 (1S89). § hoc. cit., p. 14. 



