54 OCEANITID^. 



but this may have been an egg of Procellarla nereis. The 

 other was deposited just above the tide-mark, in a cavity of 

 a rock rather open to the air and light. I had found the 

 bird there one night, had taken her uj) in my hand, and had 

 gently replaced her in the hollow, nearly a month before the 

 egg was laid. The young bird in the egg has the tarso- 

 metatarsal joint short. In the South- African Museum there 

 is a specimen of P. oceanica from the S.E. coast of Africa, 

 another from the S. coast of Africa, and two from Table 

 Bay." 



Nine eggs, brought from Kerguelen by Mr. Eaton, were 

 described by the Editor (Phil. Trans, clxvii. p. 164) as 

 averaging 1"3 by '9 in., of a dull white colour, with minute 

 purple-red spots, which generally form a zone, usually at 

 the larger end. 



The bill is black ; the irides dark brown ; the head, neck, 

 back, wing-primaries, and the tail-feathers, dark brownish- 

 black ; greater wing-coverts and the secondaries dark rusty- 

 brown, lighter in colour near the end, with the extreme 

 edges and tips white ; upper tail-coverts white ; chin, throat, 

 breast, and all the underparts sooty-black, except the 

 feathers near the vent on each outside, which are white ; 

 some of the under tail-coverts are tipped with white, and 

 the bases of the outer tail-feathers are white ; legs long and 

 slender ; the toes black with an oblong yellow patch upon 

 each web. Total length of specimen seven inches and a 

 half; the wing, from the anterior bend to the end of the 

 longest quill-feather, six inches and one-eighth ; length of 

 tarsus one inch three-eighths ; middle toe and claw one inch 

 and three -sixteenths. 



The Editor's example from Malaga, obtained on the 7th 

 August, is renewing its tail-feathers. 



