50 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL. MUSEUM. 



eggs which were quite fresh. When approached, the sitting birds ejected an 

 evil-smelling reddish fluid composed of the semidigested remains of crustaceans 

 of the genus Etiphaiisia. It was extremely disagreeable to the collector to re- 

 ceive it in his face when peering over a ledge, and the odor of it was found 

 to cling to clothes for a very long time. The birds can squirt this fluid with 

 great precision for a distance of six or eight feet. They did not leave their 

 nests readily, and even allowed themselves to be captured while sitting. The 

 pure white eggs seemed very large for the size of the bird. 



On December 3 three more eggs were obtained. There were six nests on the 

 ledge where they were found, but three of them were empty. On the following 

 day about two dozen eggs were taken on the cliffs under Mount Ramsay, and 

 on the 5th some fifty eggs were found on the cliffs on the east side of Uruguay 

 Cover. Tlie birds seemed to be of a sociable nature, for several were frequently 

 found nesting near to each other on the same ledge, but isolated nests were not 

 uncommon. 



The work of collecting the eggs of this species proved to be such an unpleasant 

 business, owing to its nasty methods of defense already alluded to, that a long 

 ski pole was used. With this the birds were pushed off their nests and the eggs 

 secured without the captor being defiled. When thus removed they took short 

 flights and then alighted near the nest. Both birds were often found sitting 

 side by side (one on the nest and the mate close alongside) and cooing and 

 clucking to each other, though not ta the same extent as during the month 

 previous, when courtship was in full swing. 



On December 12th more eggs were procured from the locality in which they 

 were obtained on the 5th, and the nests robbed on that day, though still empty, 

 were covered by sitting birds. On January 13th, 1904, a fresh egg marked on 

 December 2d was found chipped, so that the period of incubation was not less 

 than forty-two days. On January 18th a chick five days old was taken for a skin, 

 and young b'rds were still in down on February 5th, after which date the state 

 of the ice did not permit of further observations being made ere the expedi- 

 tion left for the far south. 



It was noted that before laying its eggs this petrel sits close on the nest for 

 about a month, and it was also observed that it entirely disappeared from its 

 nesting haunts for some ten days before the first eggs M^ere laid. 



The eggs vary from oval to elongate-ovate in form. Taking two extreme 

 forms, I find their dimensions to work out as follows : Oval type, 56.5x43 mm. ; 

 elongate-ovate type, 67.2x43.3 mm. The average of a large number of specimens 

 is 62.35x43.11 mm. The length varies from 56.5 to 67.2 mm. and in breadth from 

 46.5 to 40.5 mm. 



The numerous nests found were placed either on ledges of cliffs, or, though 

 these were few, in hollows in the earth and among small stones on steep scree- 

 slopes, and all were quite open. These are noteworthy facts, for the nests (con- 

 taining young) found previous to the discoveries of the Scottish expedition were 

 obtained in burrows and grottoes on the Island of Kerguelen. There is little 

 doubt that the cape petrel breeds at South Georgia, and Mr. Mossman tells me 

 that he saw it in numbers off Deception I., one of the South Shetlands, in the 

 height of the nest'ng .season. 



About 20,000 resort to Laurie I. for nesting purposes, and they are found in 

 hundreds all round the coast. In Uruguay Cove alone there were over one 

 hundred accessible nests, and many others were out of reach. They also nest on 

 Saddle I., where both young and old were obtained on February 4th, 1903, and 

 are doubtless abundant throughout the other islands of the Archipelago, which 

 may be regarded as a metropolis of the species. 



