32 BIRDS OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



Bill black ; nostrils in separate tube, above base of upper mandible. 



Iris black. 



Head, body, and tail generally bluish-ashy, except lower part of breast 

 and belly, which are white. Tail very dark at tip, and fan-shaped in 

 flight. 



Tarsus, foot, and claws black. Tibia naked 0.50 inch. 



Ugg single, white, sometimes speckled with reddish at the large end ; 

 very large in proportion to the size of the bird. 



The first specimens were taken on the 28th and 29th of October, being 

 dug out by the dogs from small burrows under clumps of Azorella. A 

 pair captured on the latter date were found under a tussock not two 

 yards above high-water mark, on the beach, under a high cliff. No eggs 

 were found at that date. Eggs were first found, December 12, under the 

 overhanging margins of clumps of grass and " Kerguelen tea" {Acoina 

 ascendens), in a bit of swampy lowland near the sea. Strange to say, 

 I have only found the male with the egg. In this locality, there were 

 no burrows ; the overhanging herbage seeming to afford sufficient pro- 

 tection to the nests. 



This petrel is strictly crepuscular in habit when near its breeding- 

 place; none having been seen by daylight except when disturbed from 

 the nest. I believe its note to be a sort of chirping whistle, not unlike 

 the creaking of a block, but did not succeed in settling this point defi- 

 nitely. No eggs were hatched before our departure from the island. 

 The birds are, at this season, perfect balls of nearly fluid fat. 



PSEUDOPEION DESOLATUS, {Gm.) Gray. 

 "Whale-Bird." 



Procellaria desolata, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i, 1788, p. 562. 



Latham, lud. Orn. ii, 1790, p. 825. But probr^bly not of authors 

 generally. 

 Daption desolatum, Shaw, Gen. Zool. xiii, 1825, p. 244. 

 JEstrelata desolata, Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pbila. 1866, p. 155, in part, with esclu- 



sioa of much of the synonymy. 

 Prion (Pseudoprion) desolata, Gkav, Handlist, iii, 1871, p. 108, No. 10923. 

 Pseudoprion hanksil, Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1866, p. 166 ; but whether of the 

 authors thei'e cited ? 



The single prepared specimen in the collection agrees with the characters I give of 

 P. hanksii, so that I so identify it with little hesitatiou. I never identified the Procel- 

 laria desolata of Gmelin in the least to my satisfaction, having allowed myself to sup- 

 pose that it was an CEstrelata, being unconsciously biased by the fact that it had been 

 very generally so considered by writers. In attentively re-examining Gmelin's diag- 

 nosis, with reference to the specimen in hand, I find, to my surprise, that it agrees in 

 essential points with the bird brought in by Dr. Kidder, and I am forced to the con- 

 clusion that Gray is right in referring it to my section Pseudoprion. It will be observed 



