26 OCEAN BIRDS. 



in lat. 42-05° S., long. 123-41'' E., and it measured eight feet across the wings. The Giant 

 Petrel is extremely powerful, and also excessively fierce and predacious — a combination most 

 disastrous to the smaller Petrel tribe, off whom it loves to make a meal. The very name of 

 OssifrcKja (Breakbones) has a fearfully carnivorous ring about it, and indeed there is no doubt 

 that any fish, flesh, or fowl of moderate dimensions becomes an acceptable addition to the daily 

 meal of this gigantic Petrel. Supposing it to be the fact that a so-called Albatross has been 

 seen to attack a man in the water, I should imagine that the Diomeclea tribe was unjustly 

 suffering for the sins of a bad-tempered or half-starved Ossifraga. In Gould's 'Birds of 

 Australia ' the following account appears, quoted from ' The Ibis ' for 1865 : — " Capt. F. W. 

 Hutton states that the bird (Giant Petrel) breeds in the cliffs of Prince Edward Islands 

 and Kerguelen's Land, but the nest can be got at occasionally. The young are at first 

 covered with a beautiful long light grey down ; when fledged they are dark brown, mottled 

 with white. When a person approaches the nest the old birds keep a short distance away, 

 while the young ones squirt a horridly smelling oil out of their mouths to the distance of 

 six or eight feet. It is very voracious, hovering over the sealers when engaged cutting 

 up a Seal, and devouring the carcase the moment it is left, which the Albatross never 

 does. It sometimes chases the smaller species, but whether or not it can catch birds 

 possessed apparently of powers of flight superior to its own is doubtful ; but, supposing 

 one killed, that it feeds only on its heart and liver I cannot believe ; yet it is said to 

 do so in the words of many ornithologists." Gould says Capt. Cook found it very abundant 

 on Christmas Island, Kerguelen's Land, and so tame that the sailors knocked them down 

 with sticks. The entire plumage of the adult bird is chocolate-brown ; bill pale straw- 

 colour; irides and legs dark brown. In immature plumage they are spotted with white — 

 hence the name "Leopard-bird." The pure white (albino) varieties are by no means 

 uncommon. There is an excellent specimen in the Natural History Museum ; also a 

 very pale buff-coloured one, besides the usual chocolate-coloured bird. Mr. H. Samiders, 

 on the sea-birds collected by Lord Lindsay's Expedition, says: — '^Ossifraga gigantea, 'Cape- 

 hen ' (sic), No. 50, male, Sept. 10th, lat. 34° S., long. 10° 42' W. Beak pale apple-green, 

 much darker at the tip; iris dark brown; feet sooty black." No. 52, Sept. 14th, "Beak 

 greyish green, darker at tip ; iris dark brown ; feet silvery brown ; spread of wing, six feet 

 seven inches." In 1885 I received a letter from Mr. Jamrach, stating that he had 

 deposited a species of Albatross in the Zoological Gardens; on hastening to see this 

 wonderful addition to their aviaries I found a fine specimen of the Giant Petrel, though 

 going by the name of Short-tailed Albatross. It only stayed a few days, as arrangements 

 had been made for sending it to Paris. It appeared in good health, and fed voraciously 



