Birds of Kerguelen Island. 29 



In Royal Sound I saw this species only twice, and then 

 because a strong wind seemed to bring in many Petrels of 

 several kinds. 



Prion desolatus (Gm.) ; Salvin, Cat. B. xxv. p. 434. 



Most naturalists and whalers speak of the Prions as 

 " Whale-birds/' but if the countless numbers of this dove- 

 like species round Kerguelen had to subsist on whalers 

 droppings they would starve. I have seen them at 7 p.m. 

 pass into Royal Sound in a glistening white line miles long. 

 I watched them on January 7th from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m. tra- 

 velling like a line of innumerable snow-flakes in a westerly 

 direction for their island home. It was an extraordinary 

 sight while the sun poured its light upon the current of 

 feathered life. Other Petrels were doubtless there, but the 

 *' under-whites ^^ predominated. When the line started I 

 could not say, but it ceased at 7.30 to be seen without 

 the sun's direct light, and I did not again encounter a 

 view. Early on the morning of December 26th, some 

 60 miles east of Cape Digby, Ave saw thousands on the 

 glassy sea after the storm of the previous day. They rise 

 from the ocean much like a flock of Starlings, but while the 

 latter are conspicuous black objects, the former are silvery 

 white. 



I found that both sexes take part in incubation in the day- 

 time in the tunnels beneath the ground. As many as three 

 birds to one egg were seen in one hollow. Of thirteen 

 examined, I found three were males and ten females, and all 

 were taken 06" the eggs in the daytime. Two females struck 

 against the ship's light one night, so probably the males 

 were then sitting. From these notes I concluded that the 

 females sit principally in the daytime. Although the nests 

 are usually placed beneath the ground, I found one in a hole 

 in a solid rock at an altitude of, at least, 300 feet above sea- 

 level. By some means it was bored horizontally, and at the 

 further end it was occupied by a sitting Prion, quite observable 

 from without. Abundant evidence along the floor showed 

 former occupation by rabbits (January 24th). The bowl of 



