MADEIRA STORM PETREL. 143 



round and round with rapid beats of its long wings, very much 

 Hke a Swallow or a Swift. We finally lost sight of it as it flew 

 behind a large stack of rock and went out to sea. This bird, 

 during its sojourn in St. Kildaat any rate, is almost exclusively 

 nocturnal in its habits, and keeps close to its hole during the 

 day. The egg is incubated by both parents, for I took male 

 and female birds from the nests ; but, as previously stated, I 

 never met with two birds in the same hole. Most of the nine 

 eggs I obtained were quite fresh^ but three of them were slightly 

 incubated. When I dissected the Petrels we caught, I found 

 the stomachs to contain an oily substance mixed with little bits 

 of sorrel." 



Nest. — Of dry grass, with round stalks and dry blades, with a 

 scrap or two of moss, and a few bits of lichen and roots 

 {Dixon). 



Eggs. — One. Dull white, widi a zone of minute dots of 

 very pale lilac round one end, in rare instances the spots 

 being spread over the entire surface. Axis, 1*2-1 -35 inches; 

 diam., 0-95-1-0. 



THE MADEIRA STORM-PETREL. OCEANODROMA CRYPTOLEUCURA. 



Cyjnachorea cryptoleucura^ Ridgway, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iv. 



p. 337 (1882). 

 Oceanodroma crypiolcucii7-a^ Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 



Water-Birds, N. Amer. ii. p. 406 (1884); Salvin, Cat. B. 



Brit. Mus. , XXV. p. 350 (1896); Boyd Alexander, Bull. 



B. O. Club, V. p. xxxvii. (1896). 



l^riate CXIc.) 



Adult Male. — General colour above sooty black, the greater 

 wing-coverts broWner externally, with light brown edges ; quills 

 black, the inner secondaries greyer on the outer webs, which 

 are narrowly edged with hoary white ; upper tail-coverts 

 white, the long ones broadly tipped with black ; head and neck 

 sooty-black, with a slight shade of greyish ; under surface of 

 body sooty-brown, including the central long under tail- 

 coverts, the lateral ones being white, with broad black tips ; 

 tail-feathers black, white at the base, the white extending 

 further on the outer ones ; under wing-coverts black, the 



