144 Southern Cross. 



its breeding-places. This species, which seems to be the " Aglet " or 

 " Eaglet " of Weddell and early explorers, has the upper surface brown, 

 and has twelve tail-feathers." 



The first specimens met with by the ' Southern Cross ' were 

 observed by Mr. Hanson on the 30th of December, 1898, when the 

 ship entered the ice-pack ; it is the " dark-colonred " bird mentioned 

 by him (siq^ra, p. 83). On Jan. 10th (supra, p. 86), he records 

 that the " brown-backed bird," which was so common on the outer 

 edge of the ice, had not been seen since the 6th of this month. The 

 'Southern Cross' was then fast in the ice-pack; but on the 18th of 

 January, when the ship " moved into tolerably clear water," he saw 

 some birds, more, in fact, than he had seen for many days past, and 

 among them was one of the Brown-backed Petrels. On Feb. 10 he 

 writes : " None of the ordinary kinds of birds have been very 

 numerous ; only once in a while a single individual of the Brown- 

 backed Petrel has been about. No Penguins " (p. 93). At this date 

 the ' Southern Cross,' after having been forty days in the pack (see 

 Bernacchi, p. 61), was heading northward for the open sea again, in 

 order to enter the pack further to the eastward. On the 12th and 

 13th of February, when the ship had regained the open sea, the 

 Brown-backed Petrel was again observed in Lat. eS"' 33' S., Long. 

 165° 48' E. Hanson says that a number of them were seen on an 

 iceberg, which had lately capsized. On the 14th the ship re-entered 

 the pack, which was then traversed in six hours (cf. Bernacclii, p. 61), 

 and on the 15th, when there was a hurricane, and the ship was hove to 

 off Victoria Land, Hanson records having seen " large numbers of the 

 Brown-backed Petrel, as many as a hundred birds in a flock " (supra, 

 p. 93). The species was again noticed on the 24th of April, off Cape 

 Adare, when numbers were seen fishing in the maslied-up ice (sup)ra, 

 p. 98) ; one was shot on the 27th. The bird was once more seen on 

 the 3rd of September, outside the house at Cape Adare (supra, p. 104). 

 Mr. Bernacchi (p. 315) says that T. antarctica was found as far south 

 as Lat. 78° S. At Cape Adare they were seen early in November, 

 flying in large flocks towards the south. Mr. Borchgrevink also 

 states that he saw one of these birds on the 5th of May (p. 120). His 

 notes on the species are as follows : — " The Brown-backed Petrel, 

 with white borders on the wings, was also evidently nesting on 

 Victoria Land, but we never found it on its nest. When we first 

 approached Cape Adare, dense flocks of them sailed about in the gales. 

 During the summer we saw few of them, but in the autumn they 

 again sailed about in the air, at great heights, while during the gales 



