PELECANOIDKS. 3(7 



Dislriliniion. — 1 >ass Strait, Tasmania, X'ictoria, New Zealaiul. 



®TOHN Keinhold Forster and his son George Forster, who accompanied Captain Cook as 

 T_i naturalists durin« iiis second voyajje in 1772, made drawings of this bird, to which the 

 nati\e name of " Tee-Tee" was applied. In " Forster's \'oyaj^e" ' it is referred to as the little 

 L)i\ ini; Petrel, a name under which it was subsequently described by Dr. Latham, in 1785, 

 in his " General Synopsis of Birds."! Later on Gmelin characterised it in his " Systema 

 Naturie," under the designation of Pi'occUaria iirnidtvix, and in iSoo Lacepede substituted the 

 generic term I'daauoidcs for that of ProccUaria, which is generally used by authors for this species 

 at the present time. 



The Diving Petrel has a most extensive range of habitat, and of no pelagic foiuid in the 

 southern seas does so much doubt and difference of opinion exist amongst authors as to which, 

 if any, of the two so-called allied species, Pdecanoidcs bcrai'di, from Chili, and /^ gantoti, Uom 

 Peru, should be included in its synonomy. 



Gould, in his " Hirds of Australia," included P. 'j,dyiwti, from Peru, as a synonym of 

 Pelicanoidcs uriuatvix, in which he is followed by Dr. Elliot Coues. The late l>r. R. H. Sharpe, 

 however, held a contrary opinion and regarded P. hcyardi as the young of P. iinnatrix, and that 

 P. gtinioti was a distinct species on account of its very much larger size, or that, at all events, 

 the examples from Western South America indicate a distinct race. Dr. Coppinger, in the 

 " Cruise of the Alert," records capturing an example of Pdciwioidcs nnnatnx on the west coast 

 of Patagonia. 



In Australian waters this bird is most frequently found in those of Victoria and Tasmania, 

 likewise in the seas washing the shores of South Australia and New South Wales, but in neither 

 of the later localities is it so plentiful as on the islands of Bass Strait and in Tasmanian waters. 



During a voyage from Sydney to Ilobart, in December, 1^07, I met with it in \ery calm 

 weather, resting on the surface of the water, at the eastern entrance to Bass Strait, and again 

 in the following month about a hundred miles north of the Tamar Heads, Northern Tasmania. 



There are also specimens in the Australian Museum Collection obtained by Mr. Henry 

 Travers on Stephens Island, in Cook Strait, where the late Sir William Duller, in his " Birds of 

 New Zealand," states: — " Mr. Burton found this Petrel breeding on Stephen's Island, in Cook's 

 Strait. It also breeds on Karewa Island (off Tauranga), on the small islands of the Great 

 Barrier, and on the ' Hen and Chickens.' " 



Mr. G. A. Keartland sends the following notes from Melbourne, X'ictoria : — "Amongst a 

 few Diving Petrels (Pdecanoidcs iiriiiatrix ) captured at Kent's Group, Bass Strait, in November, 

 were two young ones which had down adhering to the ends of their feathers, besides other 

 indications of immaturity, but they were considerably heavier and larger than the old birds. 

 Their nests are either in burrows, crevices in the rocks, or under low spreading bushes. A 

 single egg constituted the sitting." 



Dr. Lonsdale Holden wrote as follows from North-western Tasmania : — " A specimen of 

 the Diving Petrel { Haladiroina ui-iuati'ix) was picked up on the short beach, Circular Head, on 

 the ifath I'ebruary, 1SS7. On the yth Jime, 1903, I picked up two dead Diving Petrels on 

 Bellarive Beach, near Hobart, after a violent southerly gale." 



At the latter end of August, 1907, Dr. Holden presented me with an egg of this species, 

 taken by Mr. .Arthur C)ldham at White Rock, on the east coast of Tasmania, on the 22nd 

 August, 1907. Mr. Oldham stated the egg was quite fresh, as he had blown it himself, and 

 there were dozens of birds on the sand sitting on one egg each. 



* Forster's Voyage, Vol. I., p. 189. f General Synopsis of Birds, Vol. III., p. 413. 

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