AN AUSTRALIAN BIRD BOOK. 27 



3G Gray-backed Storni-Petrel, 0. {Garrodia) nereis, S. 



Oceans, A., T\, N.Z. r. ocean G.7 



Sooty; abdomen, under base tail whitish; bill, feet black; 

 f., sim. Oily substances, shellfish. 

 1 37 White-breasted Storm-Petrel (White-faced), Frigate 



1 Petrel, Mother Carey's Chicken, Pelagodroma marina, 

 S. Oceans, N. to Canary Is., U.S. (ace.) 



c. Mud. Is. ocean 8 

 Upper brownish-gray; crown, line under eye, edge of wing, 

 tail black; under, face, throat, line above eye white; 

 bill, feet black; webs yellow; f., sim. Shellfish, oily 

 matters. 



2 38 Black-bellied Storm-Petrel, Cymodroma (Fregetta) 



4 melanog aster, S. Oceans, to N. Atl., A., T. r. ocean 7.5 



Sooty-black; under base tail, flanks white; bill, feet black; 

 f., sim. Sea-animals, oily. 

 30 White-bellied Storm-Petrel, C. grallaria, S. Oceans to 



B. of Bengal, Atl. to Cancer, Florida (ace), r. ocean 7.2 

 Upper, neck, chest black; under, rump white; bill, feet 

 black; f., sim. Sea-animals, oily. 

 F. 28. PUFFINIDAE (29), PETRELS, Shearwaters, Fulmars, 

 Prions, 75 sp.— 47(16) A., 7(0)0., 24(0)P., 30(2)E., 

 22(4)Nc, 37(7)N1. 

 7 40 Wedge-tailed Petrel (Shearwater), Pufflnus sphenu- 

 25 rus, A. seas. v.r. ocean 17 .5 



Sooty-brown; wing blackish; tail black; throat ashy-gray; 

 under dull ashy-brown; bill lead color; legs, feet livid 

 flesh color, dusky on inner side of leg and toe. Like 

 42, but tail longer; f., sim. Food as for 41. 



Ocean birds are readily divisible into four families. The first 

 is made up of the 25 Storm-Petrels; the second of the 75 Petrels, 

 Shearwaters, Fulmars, and Dove-Petrels; the third family com- 

 prises only the three small southern Diving-Petrels; while the 

 fourth contains the nineteen noble Albatrosses. 



Though Storm-Petrels and Petrels of various kinds may be 

 seen in the Northern Hemisphere, yet the Southern Hemisphere, 

 with its enormous expanse of water, is the headquarters of these 

 birds. 



The dainty, tiny Storm-Petrels, fearlessly tripping over the 

 mountain billows in times of great danger to the sailor, were con- 

 sidered birds of ill-omen. Their peculiar flight possibly helped 

 this idea. Gould closely studied them and other ocean birds 

 during his voyages on sailing ships. He describes them as "flut- 

 tering over the glassy surface of the ocean during calms with an 

 easy butterfly-like motion of the wings, and buffeting and breast- 

 ing with equal vigor the crests of the loftiest waves of the storm; 

 at one moment descending into their deep troughs, and, at the 

 next, rising with the utmost alertness to their highest point, 

 apparently from an impulse communicated as much by striking 



