212 Hull, Avifauna of Neiv South Wales Islands. [iM^A^ril 



Wedge -tailed Petrels were there also, their burrows and those of 

 the Penguins being somewhat mixed up close to the water's edge. 

 A wide belt of tussocks, salt-bush, and rank growths of thistles 

 and other introduced weeds follows the shore-line, and this belt 

 was fairly infested with the two birds mentioned. The Petrels 

 were all sitting on fresh eggs. In one spot we found four dead 

 Short-tailed Petrels, which had evidently been partly eaten by 

 Crows or Hawks, lying outside the entrances to burrows tenanted 

 by the Wedge-tails, and in a rock-pool just outside the fringe of 

 vegetation we found another Short-tailed bird, apparently just 

 dead. This specimen was also skinned, and forms the type of 

 Neonectris tenuirostris grantiamis, described by me in the January 

 issue of this journal (p. 206). Just above the thick scrub, on a 

 patch of sand, I found an egg, quite fresh, but perforated by a 

 pebble, as if it had been dropped from a height of a few inches 

 rather than laid on the ground. This egg measured 71 x 45 mm., 

 and was, I believe, dropped by a Short-tailed Petrel, the size and 

 the texture of the shell being in close resemblance to those of the 

 Tasmanian and Victorian birds. The largest egg of the Wedge- 

 tailed Petrel taken on the island measured 65 x 41 mm., while the 

 smallest egg of the same species measured 54 x ^y mm. 



Instances of dead Petrels coming ashore on the New South 

 Wales coast in quantity are numerous, and various theories have 

 been advanced to account for the phenomenon. Starvation, 

 disease, storms, have all been suggested to account for the 

 untimely death of the birds. The two specimens of the Short- 

 tailed Petrel taken by us were found to be badly nourished, and 

 their stomachs were empty, but there was no sign of injury which 

 could have caused death. I advance, with some diffidence, a 

 further theory, that these smaller and less combative birds, trying 

 to establish themselves in the rookeries of the Wedge-tailed birds, 

 are driven off, buffeted, and harried until they die from exhaustion 

 or star^vation. Further investigation, and examination of the 

 blood, stomachs, and intestines of freshly-dead specimens, may 

 reveal the cause of death with greater certainty. 



We made a thorough examination of the island, searching every 

 likely patch of soil and cover for indications of the nesting-places 

 of other birds, but found none. The White-breasted birds were 

 not represented. Where the flocks we saw have their breeding- 

 place remains to be discovered. The specimens taken were adult, 

 but in some instances the moult was not complete, one bird, a 

 female, having brown patches on the wings. The ovaries of the 

 females did not indicate that the laying season was approaching. 

 On opening them Mr. Grant found their stomachs and crops crammed 

 full of small mackerel, from a fresh one in the mouth or throat 

 to almost completely digested ones in the stomach. The bodies 

 of all the specimens were well nourished and fat. Externally they 

 were covered with Mallophaga {Menopon, sp.) 



Other birds seen on this trip were Sterna cristata, Steph., Larus 

 novce-hollandicB, Steph., Sula atistralis, Gould, and Chenopis atrata. 



