208 HvLh, Avifauna of New South Wales Islands. f^f 



April 



form in a living state, and found considerable variation in tlie 

 shade of colour of the feathers, the under surface particularly 

 showing a range from light to dark. The bill and feet, however, 

 never vary in the living bird, except as regards the size and 

 thickness of the bill. This is always a dark lead-colour, frequently 

 bright and polished with the oil from its food, the tip black. The 

 tarsi are of a livid or pale lead-colour, the feet fleshy-white, with 

 coloured veins showing in the interdigital membrane ; the toes 

 white. The dried skins often lose much of these distinctive 

 colours, and some specimens taken by me have developed a 

 brownish horn-colour in both bill and feet, while others retain the 

 lead-colour of the bill. 



Mathews quotes Dr. Ramsay's identification of the Solitary 

 Island (N.S.W.) bird as P. carneipes, and North's identification 

 of the skin from South Solitary Island as P. chlororhynchus. 



During the season of 191 1 I was in correspondence with Mr. 

 D. Gow, then the principal lighthouse-keeper on South Solitary 

 Island. Mr. Gow kindly sent me a number of eggs and the skin 

 of an immature bird, undoubtedly the Wedge-tailed Petrel. He 

 stated that he had made an exhaustive search over the island, 

 and could not find any other species breeding there. 



As the eastern form has a very wide range, extending from 

 Montague Island, 150 miles south of Sydney, to Raine Islet, in 

 Torres Strait, I think that a fuller examination of series will 

 disclose more than two races or sub-species of this bird. 



On 1st December, 1913, in company with Mr. Henry Grant, I 

 visited North Coff's or Mutton-Bird Island, which lies about a 

 quarter of a mile off Coff's Harbour jetty and nine miles south of 

 South Solitary Island. The island is barely a quarter of a mile 

 in length, high and rugged, with a thin covering of soil on top. 

 Tussocks of grass grow in patches, where the soil is deep enough, 

 and where it is only a few inches in depth there are patches of 

 Mesembryanthemnm. With the exception of two small patches 

 of cane, and a few salt-bush plants, there is no other vegetation 

 on top of the island, although ferns and a creeper with thick, 

 fleshy leaves cover the steep slopes on the western side. Here 

 we found the Wedge-tailed Petrels packed closer together than 

 in any other locality I have visited. Every available foot of soil 

 was burrowed, and the burrows occupied. The soil is so shallow 

 that the covering barely sheltered the birds, and in many 

 instances they were visible from the entrance. Some hundreds 

 of eggs were lying exposed on the open ground at the entrances 

 to occupied burrows, and it appeared to me that there were more 

 claimants for house-room than houses ! The eggs were all quite 

 fresh. The fisherman who accompanied us said that the birds 

 always laid their eggs on the 25th November. It is quite possible 

 that some lay on that date, but I think that the bulk are laid on 

 the 27th November, the date observed in other Mutton-Bird 

 rookeries. 



The only other species found breeding on this island was the 



