NoK xx.-j Royal Austra/dsiaii Oniiiholof^ists' Union. 121 



will requiro some years of attention during the months of Septem- 

 ber, October, and November. I refer to the movement of the 

 Short-tailed and Wedge-tailed Petrels. Year after year the 

 former species passes along the eastern coast of Australia in 

 numbers that can safely be estimated in miUions. Periodically 

 countless thousands die and are cast up on the beaches. Examina- 

 tion shows that the liirds have died from starvation. Why ? 

 That is only one of tlu' many questions that require answering. 

 Why do they go so far from their known breeding-places in Bass 

 Strait ;i.nd on the Victorian coast ? Do they spread far and wide 

 over the Australian seas from March to September and then 

 gather together towards the latter end of the last-named month ? 

 If so, again, Why ? On the 5th of this month (October, 1920) 

 it was reported that dense flocks of "Mutton-Birds" passed 

 Cape Byron on the border between New South Wales and Queens- 

 land, flying south, the stream taking three hours to pass a given 

 point. Shortly we will hear of dead bodies being washed on 

 shore, and the tale of successive years will be repeated. Some- 

 times the dead and dying Petrels coming ashore prove to be of 

 the Wedge-tailed species. Emaciated bodies and empty stomachs 

 tell the same story of starvation, but the numbers are never so 

 great as in the case of the Short- tailed species. To fully elucidate 

 This mystery will require undivided attention by a worker who 

 can go out at call from any point between Gabo Island (on the 

 south-east of the continent) and Broken Bay (farther north) to 

 watch the mov^ements of the birds and take specimens for examina- 

 tion ; to visit the islands where they breed, or where they are trying 

 to gain a footing ; and he must, in addition, be prepared to study 

 the migrations of the fish and the nature and sources of the food 

 supply. 



The Penguins will provide another field for investigation. .My 

 own limited researches point to there being a steady northward 

 extension of their range. Twenty years ago the Little Penguin 

 was unknown as far north as Sydney, but it now breeds all along 

 the coast of New South Wales up to-Port Stephens, and stragglers 

 are reported from Moreton Bay. The Crested Penguins are un- 

 doubtedly making exploratory visits ever farther northward, 

 and the reason for this extension is yet to be discovered. Stuart - 

 Sutherland, in the last Emu, records, with expressions of wonder, 

 the fact that the Thick- billed Penguin nests twice in the one year. 

 My experience is that the Little • Penguin breeds practically all 

 the year round ! Here is room for at least one year's close 

 investigation, involving periodical visits to islands and headlands 

 from Tasmania to Tweed Heads. 



The Storm-Peirels, Prions, and Diving-Petrels will afford 

 material for quite a band of workers. We know vi'ry little of 

 their breediiig-places and haliits, excepting in the case of the 

 White-faced Storm-Petrel. On a sm;dl rock— out- of the h'riars, 

 off South Bruni Island — 1 found one of the Thin-billed Prions 

 breeding nearly J5 years ago. The colon}' occupied a patch of 



