140 Southern Cross. 



These birds were evidently incubating at no great distance, as their 

 breasts were bare of feathers. Surgeon Webster, of H.IM.S. ' Glian- 

 ticlcer' refers to the abundance of this species at Deception Island, one 

 of the South Shetlands ; and I venture to surmise that this may be 

 the small Petrel which the German expedition found breeding at the 

 end of December, 1882, on South Georgia, and which is called 

 0. melanogaster by Steinen. The ' Belgica ' obtained specimens in 

 Gerlache Strait in January, 1898, as weU as in the pack at about 

 70° S. and 87° W. in January, 1899. The ' Challenger ' Expedition 

 secured several off the ice-barrier in February, 1874, and examples 

 were obtained on the ' Southern Cross ' Expedition between 63° — 

 66° S. and 161° - 166° E. The first breeding-place definitely made 

 known, however, in Kerguelen Island, where the bird was discovered 

 by the Eev. A. E. Eaton, the naturalist to the ' Transit 0/ Venus ' 

 Expedition in 1874-5. He found the single egg belonging to each 

 pair of birds, laid in January or February, in some crevice or hole 

 among shattered rocks or large boulders ; the egg, as usual with the 

 Petrels, being of a dull white colour, with minute purplish-red spots 

 tending to form a zone at the broader end ; measurements, 1 * 3 by 

 0*9 in. Subsequently, Mr. Pt. Hall has contributed some interesting 

 details on the breeding of this, as well as other species, on Kerguelen. 

 Both sexes, he says, take turns at incubation, and about 8 p.m. the 

 ' night shift ' comes in from the sea to go on duty, when the relief is 

 marked by loud croakings ; and few birds are to be seen over the 

 land in the day-time. After the breeding-season, Wilson's Petrel 

 wanders widely, and, owing to the fact that it has been often 

 observed on the coasts of Western Europe, including the British 

 Islands, as well as on those of America up to Labrador, some 

 ornithologists have assumed that it bred on the islands of the North 

 Atlantic. Of this there is not the slightest proof; on the contrary, 

 some of the birds obtained between the spring and autumn of our 

 Northern Hemisphere are in moult." 



In Mr. Hanson's ' Diary ' he records the present species as occur- 

 ring on the 5th of October, 1898, when the ' Southern Cross ' was in 

 Lat. 27° 27' S., Long. 23° 33' W. He mentions Black Petrels again 

 on the voyage out, but some of these may have been Frcgetta 

 melanogoster. Wilson's Petrel was met with on reaching the ice- 

 pack on December 30th, 1898 (Lat. 61° 56' S., Long. 153° 53' E.), 

 and again on the 31st, as well as on various dates in January, 1899. 

 After the 30th he does not seem to have noticed the species till the 

 ship approached Victoria Land, on the 1 5th of February. By the 7th 

 of March it was getting scarce, and was only seen singly. On the 9th 



