34i; sulida;. 



f'.S';//(( austi'dlis) lishint; close to the north-western point (jf Circular Head Peninsula. It was a 

 fine sight, several hundreds of birds were to be seen following a shoal of fish, and a do^en or 

 more of them might be seen diving at once. The spray they threw up, made the sea seem as if 

 it was lashed by a squall, while close by would be a patch of water white with the birds, who 

 sat swallowing tlie result of a successful plunge." 



Mr. E. D. Atkinson sends me tlio following notes from Tasmania : — " During a trip to the 

 I'urneaux Islands, Bass Strait, in company with Mr. \V. J. T. Armstrong, in 1907, we landed 

 on Cat Island, one of the smaller islands of the group, im the 12th November, where we found a 

 large colony of Gannets f\S»/(t (7;/s/r(i//s-j breeding. The nests, covering roughly an acre on the 

 northern portion of the island, consisted of mounds of excrement nine inches high, placed so 

 close together that many touched each other at the base : the hollow at the top measured eight 

 inches across by two inches deep ; a few were thickly lined with seaweed, the eggs, one in each 

 nest (though in one instance I noticed three) were mostly fresh, but in some incubation had 

 commenced, whilst in others a few young birds were hatched. No doubt in the Inst place the 

 eggs were deposited on the surface of the ground, the mounds having risen through successive 

 seasons to their present dimensions. Occasional visits have been made by the lessee of the 

 island for the purpose of removing the accumulation of guano, after which the formation of the 

 nest mounds is again repeated. There were some thousands of birds about, and the ground 

 was practically covered with their nests. .'\s a rule the birds were tame, and in some instances 

 allowed us to touch them whilst on their nests, offering but slight resistance; hundreds also 

 were Hying overhead, uttering their feeble and iiKjnotonous notes." 



Almost invariably only one egg is laid for a sitting in the large nesting colonies of these 

 birds, on the islands of Bass Strait, but Mr. E. D. Atkinson records finding the unusual number 

 of three eggs in one nest. Typically the egg is elongate oval in form, some specimens being 

 much pointed at the smaller end, of a uniform pale bluish-white colour, but which is usually 

 obscured by a thick coating of lime, and generally much soiled by the feet of the sitting bird. 

 There is the usual \ariation in size to be found where birds breed together in large numbers, 

 the smaller eggs doubtless being laid by younger birds. \n egg in the Australian Museum 

 Collection, taken by Mr. [oseph Gabriel on the 12th Noxember, i8c)3, from the nesting colony 

 figured. Cat Island, Furneaux Group, Bass Strait, measures : — Length (A) 3-07 x I'g inches. 

 Four single eggs, taken from different nests at the same place, measure respectively : — Length 

 (A) 2'gS X i'47 inches; (13) 2-95 x i'75 inches; (C) 3-i5 x I'y inches; (D) 3'07 x 1-83 inches. 

 Two eggs taken by Mr. \i. I"). Atk'inson on the 12th November, 1907, on the same island, 

 measure: — Length (A) 3-21 x i-Sj inches: (B) yi x i-SfS inches. 



Immature birds have the under parts white, head and neck' white with a bully wash on 

 the forehead and sides of the head, most of the feathers of the head and neck being 

 conspicuously tipped with dark greyish-brown ; feathers of the upper back dark greyish-brown 

 narrowly edged at the tip with white, lower back and wings dark greyish-brown, most of the 

 feathers having a white sagittate marking or tipped with white ; upper tail coverts white, with 

 one or more irregular-shaped transverse cross-bars of greyish-brown ; tail-feathers dark greyish- 

 brown, their shafts whitish ; wing almost equals that of the adult bird 18-25 inches. 



October and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season on the 

 islands lying off the Tasmanian and Southern Victorian coasts. 



