146 Leach, The Birds of Victoria. [^ 



ict. Nat. 

 Dec. 



storm-petrels, which appear during the wildest storms, and drag 

 their feet over the crest of the waves as if, like St. Peter, they 

 were walking on the sea. Hence the name petrel. The beau- 

 tiful, graceful White-faced Storm-Petrel nests on Mud Island. 

 As, being ocean birds, they are unlikely to have originally come 

 into a land-locked harbour to breed, their presence there pro- 

 bably points to past changes in the history of Port Phillip — 

 changes which receive the support of geographers, who are 

 convinced that Port Phillip once had a wide opening to the sea, 

 but which has been almost closed by the sand-drift from the 

 west. 



Mutton-birds take one's thought back to Bass and Flinders 

 making their adventurous voyage of weeks along the Victorian 

 coast in the Tom Thumb. They were able to replenish their 

 stores with young Mutton-birds, and so extend their voyage, 

 and finally to prove that Tasmania was not part of the main- 

 land. Again, one's thoughts turn to the remarkable settle- 

 ment on Cape Barren Island, a small colony of people depending 

 entirely on the Mutton-bird for their annual harvest, just as the 

 Mallee farmer depends on wheat. These people work only for 

 about seven weeks in the year, when the young ]\Iutton-birds 

 are ready to take. They claim to take one and a half millions a 

 year, sell one million, and keep half a million for their own 

 requirements. The}' eat no other meat but Mutton-bird. 

 These birds breed in enormous numbers on Cape Woolamai, 

 Phillip Island. Time, however, will not permit a more detailed 

 treatment, and we must pass on to the mighty albatrosses, 

 which have fascinated most ocean voyagers in Australia's seas. 

 For an hour at a time they have been known to wheel cease- 

 lessly round and round a travelling vessel, and yet no flap of the 

 wing could be detected. With a wing span of 10 ft. 6 in., they 

 simply trim the wing and sail off, but one cannot say whence 

 the great energy needed to propel the big bird with such speed 

 is derived. 



The Shy Albatross nests on the precipitous Albatross Rock, 

 a rocky islet in a troubled sea north-west of Tasmania. The 

 landing is most dangerous — indeed, getting such bird pictures 

 is not devoid of inconvenience, much expense, and often great 

 danger. 



In group nine — Lariformes — we have the common shore 

 birds, of which there are three chief kinds — the beautiful sea- 

 swallows (terns), the sea-gulls, and the robber gulls, usually 

 called skuas. The sea-gulls do not breed in Port Phillip, but 

 retire to a rocky island where they have a chance of breeding 

 without being interfered with. It is one of the sights of Currie 

 Harbour (the chief settlement of King Island) to see a colony 

 of these Silver (lulls breeding on a big rock within a few yards 



