THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 41 



Puffinus assimilis, Gould, Allied Petrel. — This beautiful little 

 species is a debtor to its elegant form, rather than its colours, for 

 the appearance of the dark sooty-black head and neck with 

 the contrast of white under surface are the only noticeable 

 colours on the body. The applied specific name assimilis was 

 given by our great deceased ornithologist in recognition of 

 its affinity with the British one of almost equal proportions and 

 colour. 



Our compact little friend, Puffinuria urinatrix, Diving 

 Petrel, so often to be seen near the islands off the promontory, 

 has been classed by seven European ornithologists under seven 

 heads. The structure of the bird causes the habits to be 

 different from all other members of the family, excepting the four 

 Puffins, and mainly in not possessing the great powers of flight 

 common to the family, though its powers of diving are a com- 

 pensation, appearing simply to fly under water, when it makes 

 the pace very warm for shrimps and small fish, upon which it 

 feeds. The mode of flight is to keep close to and almost on the 

 water : not troubling to rise above a wave, but simply go through 

 it, which happens so often that the flight is a short flutter kind of 

 motion. From several specimens taken at Cliffy Island, the 

 colours appear to vary. Petrels are the most aerial of birds, yet 

 this species, in its general habits, its manner of swimming and 

 flying when unwillingly it takes flight, would be mistaken by one 

 for a Grebe ; nevertheless it is a Petrel with many parts of its 

 organization modified. 



Entering upon a few details of the fourth family, that of the 



Pelecanid^e 



(embracing the Greek word for " I hew with an axe "), we find 

 diversions of structure — though all with the four toes included in 

 the web — under five headings : — Pelican, Cormorant, Gannet, 

 Darter, and Tropic Bird, taking for our type the Pelican, Pele- 

 canus conspicillatus, Temm., and represented by one species only, 

 and that the only pouched bird found in Australia. This species 

 is cosmopolitan, though not in any case do the beauty and shade 

 tints exceed in splendour that of the one peculiar to our land. 

 For the specific name compare its conspicuous markings (?), its 

 entire plumage being white, omitting the primaries, secondaries, 

 scapularies, portion of upper tail-coverts, lower row of greater 

 wing-coverts, and a portion of the edging of the shoulders, which 

 are black. The nest is a large structure of sticks and herbage, 

 and ranks as a castle amongst homesteads ; the eggs are generally 

 two in number, and may be found on islands in Bass Strait and 

 undisturbed interior waters. The food supply is confined to fish, 

 which must doubtless entail constant labour to supply according 

 to the demand. 



