BuLLER. — Observations on an. Ocean Voyage. 187 



lowered a boat, and shot a pair of them, which he sent to mo 

 in the flesh. 



16th March. — Sighted land at 10 a.m.— the island of Diego 

 Eamirez. A flock of penguins reported on our starboard side, 

 disporting themselves in the water, but I did not see them. 

 I observed a pair of Ossifraga gigantea, a single Diomedea 

 melanoplirys, and a very fine Diomedea regia, the white 

 marking on the wings being very conspicuous. Off Cape 

 Horn I noticed several large Black Petrels with very rapid 

 flight, which I was unable in the distance to identify ; also 

 a pair of Oceanites oceanicus, fluttering over the water like 

 butterflies, although the sea was smooth. 



17tli and 18th March. — As we passed up into the waters 

 of the South Atlantic, the weather being thick, bird-life for a 

 time disappeared ; but on nearing the Falkland Islands a 

 Black Shag, after hovering round us on w^earied wing for half 

 an hour, took refuge on the ship. 



19th March. — Dense fog in the morning, and no birds. It 

 cleared off in the afternoon, and after passing the Falklands I 

 saw a small Grey-and-White Petrel in the distance, and a soli- 

 tary Ossifraga gigantea. 



20th March. — Wet and foggy in the forenoon ; not a wing 

 to be seen. At noon we were in lat. 47*^ 30' S., and in long. 

 53° 41' W. I saw an Albatros in the distance (apparently 

 D. malanophrys), a pair of black-and-white Petrels of large 

 size ; also a flock of what appeared to be Prion turtur, or an 

 allied species; and, at intervals, scattered flocks of Oceanites 

 oceanicus, their white croup showing very conspicuously as 

 they skimmed the surface of the water in their erratic flight. 



21st March. — A flock of Storm-petrels, and a few other 

 birds too remote from the ship for identification, completed the 

 day's list. 



22nd and 23rd March. — One is much impressed by the 

 general absence of bird-life in the South Atlantic. The waters 

 are intensely blue to-day, with a hght breeze blowing, causing 

 crested wavelets as far as the eye can reach, but there is no 

 sign of anything except a solitary Storm-petrel now and then, 

 or a pair of some larger species. Captain Kempsou, who has 

 made this journey by steamer two-and-twenty times, informs 

 me that, as a rule, no Albatroses are to be seen after passing 

 the Falkland Islands, but that in the winter months, and 

 especially in August, he has known them to follow the ship 

 some hundreds of miles further north. In the Indian Ocean, 

 on the other hand, he has met with Albatroses two days 

 north of the Cape of Good Hope, or quite near to the 

 equator. 



24th March. — To-day, when about a hundred and forty 

 miles from Rio, in lat. 29° 25' S., and long. 45° 53' W., a 



