n 



AN AUSTRALIAN BIRD BOOiv. 



58 Royal Albatross, D. regia, A., T., N.Z. Seas. c. ocean 44 

 Lately separated from 57, because young have white down 

 instead of gray; adult has no zigzag lines; f., sim. 

 Food see 57. 

 59 Black-browed Albatross (MoUymawk), D. melano- 



phrys, S. Oceans, England (once). v.c. ocean 32 



Darwin thought that the most numerous of birds was a Petrel. 

 One of great interest is the "Mutton-Bird," or Short-tailed Petrel. 

 This romantic bird breeds by the million on Cape Woolamai and 

 other places about Bass Strait. 



Just as the mallee farmer is dependent on his annual wheat 

 harvest, so the remarkable colony of people living on Cape Barren 

 Island is entirely dependent on the annual Mutton-Bird harvest. 

 They claim to take about a million and a half birds each year. 

 The number is probably much exaggerated, for Littler, in his 

 valuable Birds of Tasmania, gives the number as 555,000 for 

 1909, valued at about £4000. Bass and Flinders were glad to 

 replenish their stores with young Mutton-Birds. Flinders calcu- 

 lated that one flock of these birds he met in Bass Strait contained 

 132,000,000 birds. They lay but one egg, so one would expect 

 the Petrel to be long-lived. We found a closely-similar bird 

 nesting on Mast Head Island, Capricorn Group. 



The three southern Diving Petrels, forming the next family, 

 are much smaller than the common Petrels. They are expert 

 divers, and are found mainly in the far South. 



