25 



CHAPTER III. 



OTHER SPECIES OF PETREL. 



" Up and down ! Up and down ! 

 From the base of the wave to the billow's crown, 

 And amidst the flashing and feathery foam 

 The daring Petrel finds a home, — 

 A home, if such a place may be, 

 For her who lives on the wide, wide sea, 

 On the craggy ice, in the frozen air. 

 And only seeketh her rocky lair 

 To warn her young, and to teach them spring 

 At once o'er the waves on their stormy wing!" 



Barry Cornwall. 



In the two preceding Chapters all the smallest, and with one exception the largest, 

 Petrels have been dealt with. This third Chapter wiU comprise all the remainder that 

 we should be likely to fall in with on the Australian voyage. 



The Giant Petrel (Ossifraga gigantea), of the genus Ossifraga, and the only species known, 

 is a familiar bird to all traversers of the Southern Seas. As the name implies, it is a bird of 

 huge proportions, equalling in general dimensions the smaller Albatrosses, and, as Prof. Huxley 

 says, "holds a sort of middle place between the Gulls and the Albatrosses." Its iwm de mer is 

 "Nelly," applied to either sex; it is also called Leopard-bn-d, or Leopard Albatross. It is often 

 considered an Albatross both at sea and on land ; but the curiously built-up beak, with nostrils 

 encased in one sheath (instead of on either side), should at once show it to be no Diomedea. 

 The flight of this great Petrel is, moreover, inferior to that of the Albatross family, having 

 considerably more of the flapping land-bird style about it, by which it can always be recognised 

 at a distance. This inferiority, however, is only by comparison, as I have often noticed a 

 particular specimen follow the ship for days together, and then only leave by reason of its being 

 caught with hook and line. If they are on the feed, this is easily accomplished with your 

 Albatross fishing-gear ; and I have frequently caught two or three in a day, though, as a rule, 

 they are shyer than the Diomedea. I caught the specimen from which Fig. 6 was copied 



