92 OCEAN BIRDS. 



running into a sleej^ing Sunfish off Yokohama. The account finishes thus ; — " Attemjjts were made 

 to get it on board, it being deftly slung, but it dropped in two, as well it might, and oilily floated 

 astern, a Japanese fishing-boat and a Giant Petrel waiting their turn." This is very new water for a 

 Giant Petrel. I think it must have been a Short-tailed Albatross {Diomedea hrachyura). 



Page 29. Fulmae Petrel. — Considered the most numerous bird in the world, and yet only lays 

 one egg. Darwin makes a strong point of this in his remarks on the great struggle for existence. So 

 many die off in this competition that it becomes a matter of no moment whether there are six eggs to be 

 hatched off or only one. No doubt the Fulmar Petrel is so eminently fitted for its position in life that the 

 solitary "chick" generally survives. This is one of the three species of Ocean Birds so common on an 

 Atlantic voyage, Wilson's Petrel and the Great Shearwater being the other two. 



Page 32, 7th line, Prion turtur, not inetur. 



Page 33. In ' Origin of Species' (p. 184), Darwin says: — "In the genus Prion, a member of the 

 distinct family of the Petrels, the upper mandible is furnished with lamellae, which are well developed and 

 project beneath the margin ; so that the beak of this bird resembles in this respect the mouth of a whale." 

 This very clearly explains their being called " Whale-birds" at sea, though I have never met a sailor who 

 knew the reason. 



Page 34. Prion hrevirostris, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1885, p. 88. — This bird appears to frequent the 

 Island of Madeira and neighbouring rocky islets called the Desertas. Gould says it is the only Prion 

 found north of the Equator. He thus describes it : — " Upper surface delicate blue ; edge of the shoulder, 

 the scapularies, outer margins of the external primaries, and the tips of the middle tail-feathers black ; 

 lores, sides of the head, and all the under surface white, stained with blue on the flanks and under tail- 

 coverts ; bill light blue, deepening into black on the sides of the nostrils and at the tip, and with a 

 black line along the side of the under mandible ; feet light blue, the interdigital membrane flesh-colour. 

 Total length, 10|^ in. ; bill, H in. ; wing, 6| in. ; tail, Sk in. ; tarsi, Ij in." 



Page 34, 9th line from bottom (Snowy Petrel), for " Arctic bird" read " Antarctic bird." 

 Page 35. Greater Shearwater {Puffinus major). — This bird was omitted in Part I., so I introduce 

 it here. It is a rare visitant to Great Britain, very common on the banks of Newfoundland, and 

 occasionally met with off the Cape of Good Hope. It almost exactly resembles P. anglorum, except 

 that it is larger, being 18 inches instead of 14 inches long. 



Page 35. Pujinus assimilis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 156. — Long. tot. unc. 11; rostri, 2f ; 

 alae, 6J ; caudae, 3 ; tarsi, IJ. Hab. in Nova Cambria Australi. Obs. — Very closely allied to P. obscurus, 

 but considerably smaller. 



Page 36. Pelecanoides urinatrix. — In his 'Origin of Species' (p. 142), Darwin says :—" Petrels are 

 the most aerial and oceanic of birds, but in the quiet sounds of Tierra del Fuego, the Puffumria berardi, in 

 its general habits, in its astonishing power of diving, in its manner of swimming, and of flying when made 

 to take flight, would be mistaken by any one for an Auk or a Grebe ; nevertheless it is essentially a Petrel, 

 but with many parts of its organization profoundly modified in relation to its new habits of life." 



Page 37. Dusky Petrel (P. obscurus). — Yarrell says, " P. obscurus measures 11 inches in its whole 

 length, and 6f from the bend of the wing to the end of the longest quill-feather." It is found in the 

 Mediterranean, and very common off the Cape of Good Hope. Gould says it is the representative of 

 P. assimilis of Australia, which it so exactly resembles that many authors consider it the same species. 



Page 41. Great Frigate-bird. — Diego Garcia consists of three islands, two of which are leased 

 by that enterprising Australian line, the Orient Steam Navigation Company. In examining a small 

 collection of birds from these islands, Mr. Howard Saunders, in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological 



