38 BIRDS OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



When the Swatara was eudeavoriug to land a party at Possession 

 Island, the largest of the Crozet group, early in September, I noticed 

 frequently a ver}' small div^er, which took wing immediately on arising 

 to the sui^face of the water, and after a short flight dived beneath it 

 without first alighting. I suppose this to have been the bird now under 

 consideration, although, as will be seen, 1 failed to verify the fact abso- 

 lutely. On the first landing of our party at Kerguelen Island, this bird 

 was one of the two most commonly heard at night, and seen fluttering 

 about the hillside. Its note is somewhat similar to the mew of a cat, 

 with a marked rising inflection of sound. It cannot rise from level 

 ground in flight, but, once in the air, flies strongly and rapidly, with a 

 rapidly fluttering motion of the wings, very like the flight of the com- 

 mon English sparrow. It burrows in the same localities as Malobccna^ 

 digging less deeply and making fewer turns in its burrow, and seems 

 to remain therein during the daj^, being exclusively nocturnal in its 

 habits when near its nest. Lays one egg, as large as a pigeon's, white, 

 and not sharply pointed ; first found by me December 10. I did not 

 succeed in finding any young up to January 10, the date of our depart- 

 ure. 



I heard much from the whalers and others of the great diving powers 

 of these birds, which their structure certainly seems to indicate, without 

 being able to confirm the fact by personal observation. On the night 

 of l!^ovember 23, while 1 was watching by the sea-shore the actions of 

 the birds flitting across the path of the moon's light upon the water, 

 with the purpose of settling this point, one flew close hy my ear, with a 

 great whirring of wings, from the sea and into the bank behind me. It 

 could not rise again on the wing, and I captured it, with some difficulty, 

 owing to the darkness, as it was making its way back to the water. I 

 tied a long, light string to one of its legs, carried it out some yards on 

 a i^lank-walk leading to the tide-gauge, and threw it into the sea. It 

 swam well, and could rise from the water in flight, spattering for a long 

 way with its wings, like a duck ; but made no attempt whatever to dive, 

 although much frightened and restrained from flight by the string. The 

 experiment was repeated several times with no better success. (Speci- 

 men preserved, No. 101.) The stomachs of all the specimens examined 

 were found to be empty, and I have no clew therefore from the nature 

 of their food. 



There seems to be no reasonable doubt of the diving powers o[ Pele- 

 canoides, however, or that it habitually seeks its food in that way, not- 



