piiioN. ST'i 



sfreii/,- hrliitr ill,' ryi' and tin; ear-cuvr/s /jhtif:li-r/rt'i/ : lores, n braail Iml Ul-di'lnii'.il pi/ebraiv, checks, 

 sidi'a oj III'' w'l'k mill all llip, Htider surface fvhit'' : sii/fs of ikf fnri'urck hliiish-(irfy : under nnn;/- 

 coverts and under (ail-coverts n-lnte, the latter iiarron-li/ streaked iritli bluish grey on. thelrinifer eoverts. 

 Total leiii/fh in the jlesh 10 2-'i inches, n-iiuj I'ro, tail ■!.'/, hUl ll-'J, tarsus 1. 



Al)Ur,T KKMALK. — Similar in /iluinaye to the male. 



Diitribuliou. — New South Wales, Victorian, Soiitli Australian and Western Australian 

 Seas, islands of Bass Strait, Tasmania and New Zealand. 



/"T^l I ESE fairy-like denizens of the Australian, Tasmanian and New Zealand seas, have 

 -L ever been a source both of confusion and perplexity to the student of pelaf,'ic ornitholof,'y, 

 for of the four known species inhabitint; these seas, the distinnuishin.L; characters chiefly lie in 

 the size and breadth of bill, as they differ but little in size and colour of plumage, the latter 

 principally, too, consisting' of a sli.tjhtly darker band in some species. The present species is 

 well known to inhabitants of Southern Australia under the name of Prion ariil, but Dr. F. Du 

 Cane Godman, in his recently published " ^lonograph of Petrels," points out that the reference 

 given by Gould to his original description of Prion and in the " Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society," does not exist, consequently Gould's name given to this species in New Zealand, 

 Prion brcvirostrts, must stand. Godman further writes: — " No actual limits as to width of bill can 

 be drawn between Prion vittatus. and P. banksi, neither can the exact differences in the proportions 

 of the bill of P. banksi, P. brcrirostris and P. daolatus be defined. There seems, indeed, to be a 

 perfect gradation between all these Blue Petrels, and it is impossilile to say where one form ends 

 and the other commences." 



What appears to be the most varied character in a number of adult specimens now before 

 me is the length of the bill. In young birds the bill is distinctly smaller and the upper parts a 

 paler bluish-grey. Of an adult female and young one in the down in the Australian Museum 

 Collection, taken by Mr. J. Philp out of a nesting burrow on Friar's Rock, off the north-east 

 coast of Tasmania, in November, iSSS, the former has the crown of the head distinctly darker 

 than the back, yet the wing and bill measurement, 6-5 inches and o-g inches, is that of P. 

 brcvirostns. 



I first noted this bird during a voyage from Sydney to Hobart in December, 1907, in the 

 neighbourhood of Montague Island, and later on at Gabo Island, flying noiselessly about or 

 resting on the water. Later on it was seen in numbers at the western entrance of Bass Strait, 

 and was observed near Cape Raoul and at the entrance of the Derwent River. From slightly 

 further south, on Bruni Island, in D'Entrecasteaux Channel, I have received adults, eggs and 

 young in down, the former captured in the burrows with their young. In Bass Strait, some of 

 the members of the Field Naturalist Club of Victoria found it breeding on North-east Island in 

 November, 1892, and from where, subsequently, I received its eggs, taken by Mr. Joseph 

 Gabriel on the 24th November, iSl;5. Dr. W. Macgillivray found it breeding on a small island 

 near Portland, on the south-western shores of \'ictoria. It is not a common bird in New South 

 Wales waters, except m that part of theTasman Sea washing the southern portion of the eastern 

 coast. Occasionally odd birds have been obtained in Sydney Harbour. By far the greatest 

 number of specimens in the Australian Museum Collection, procured in New South Wales, 

 were picl<ed up dead on the ocean beaches after heavy easterly gales, and notably during the 

 " Nemesis" gale. Not only has the present species been picked up at Newport, Maul}', Bondi, 

 Maroubra and Cronulla beaches, in the neighbourhood of Sydney, but Prion vittatus and P. banksi 

 also. 



From Melbourne, \'ictoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland sent the following notes : — " During the 

 visit of the Victorian Field Naturalists' Club to Kent's Group, in November, 1890, a party went 

 to North-east Island, and there found a number of Fairy Prions breeding. The crevices 



