Birds of Kerguelen Island. ^\ 



faint yellow ; webs bright yellow ; toes faint black ; nails 

 black. The parents sit with the young during the night. 



We found this species numerous in all the five harbours 

 visited by our brig. 



Cymodroma melanogaster (Gould) ; Salvin^ Cat. B. xxv. 

 p. 364. 



I was not able to find the nesting-place of this Petrel, but 

 it was somewhere at the north-west end of Royal Sound, 

 and our ship lay at the opposite corner while in this harbour. 

 The bird was seen at both ends of the island, but not in the 

 same numbers as the yellow-webbed Wilsou^s Petrel. 



Majaqueus ^quinoctialis (Linn.) ; Salvin, Cat. B. xxv. 

 p. 395. 



Our first sight of the Spectacled or White-chiuned Petrel 

 was 280 miles due north of Kerguelen island. 



On Murray Island, in Royal Sound, while watching Teal, T 

 saw an example of this Petrel pass and repass several times 

 a small waterfall, and, to my astonishment, it finally settled 

 down iu the shallow water and waded under the ledge of the 

 bank. A little digging in this thoroughly sodden ground 

 brought me to the nest, and I soon found out that a White- 

 chinned Petrel bites severely. The male bird takes part in 

 the incubation in the daytime, but also leaves the egg to 

 itself for a considerable time while in the early stage of 

 development ; and this I observed also in Greenland Harbour. 



Besides cephalopods, the food of the birds seems to be 

 kelp, which I noticed on opening one specimen. Gould 

 remarks that the yellow markings on the bill of this Petrel 

 are particularly defined in Australian specimens. I observed 

 that one of our Kerguelen birds had yellowish-blue horn- 

 colour predominating over most of the bill, Avitli a ridge of 

 black along the lower mandible, and one-third of the upper 

 mandible from the nostril was also black. 



There is a peculiarity in the breeding of the bird. Of 

 eleven nests found only one was in dry ground ; the others 

 were in hill-sides, down which snow-water ran at all seasons 

 of the year. The earth was simply saturated with water. 



