88 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



one. Some find the ship tliat they were willi tlio <l:iy liefore, some another one. \n 

 the latter ease, if the seconil slii|( is troiiig in an <i|i|i(psite direetion to tlie lirst, tliey 

 are never seen liy the first again; if, however, tiie course of the two slii|is is the same, 

 tlie bird nii«;ht, very likely, lose the second ship, and rejoin the first, after a lapse of 

 two or three days. A heijiht of 1000 feet would enable a bird to see a shij) "iOO feet 

 liigh more than fifty miles off, and often, although unable to see a ship itself, it would 

 see another liinl which hail evidently discovered one, and would follow it in the s.ame 

 way that vultures are known to follow one another. This opinion is much strength- 

 ened by the fact that at sunrise very few birds are round the ship, but soon .afterwards 

 tliey begin to arrive in large numbers." The same author enlarges on the general 

 history, especially the breeding habits of the albatross, a condensed account of which 

 will l>e found very interesting. The wandering albatrosses are very common south of 

 latitude W° S. an<l monojiolize nearly the whole of the Prince Edward's Islanils and 

 the southeast portion, or lee-side, as the sealers call it, of Kerguelen Island, to which 

 j)laces they retire to breed in Octol)er. The nest, which is always jilaced on high 

 table lands, is in the shape of the frustrum of a cone, with a slightly-hollowed top, .•mil 

 is made of grass and mud, which the Ijirds obtain l)y digging a circular ditch, almut 

 two yards in diameter, and pushing the earth towards the centre, until it is about 

 eiirlitcen inches high. In this nest the female bird lays one white eg":, which is not 

 hatched until .January. It is asserted, ni>oii the authority of Mr. Richard Il.arris, 

 engineer of the Royal Navy, that the old birds leave their young and go to sea, and 

 do not return vmtil the ne.xt October. "Each jiair goes at once to its old nest, and 

 after a little fondling of the young one, which has remained in or near the nest the 

 whole time, they turn it out, and repair the nest for the next brood." Hutton thiiik>^ 

 that the old ones go to sea when the j'oung are about three months old, and that tiic 

 latter are nocturnal in their habits, and go <lown to the sea at night to feed, returning 

 to their nests in the morning, though Plarris's testimony is to the effect that the young 

 during that ])criod are unable to fly. Mr. C. J. Anderson has suggested that the 

 young birds "live on their own fat" while the parents are absent, and asks: "If 

 other animals can live for several consecutive months on their own fat, why not 

 birds ?" 



The PKOCELLARiiDyE IS the group richest in species, comprising, as it does, :ibout 

 seventy different forms, in size varying from that of a sparrow, as the stormy petrels 

 (P)-()C('//(in'(i, and Occaiwdrorna), to that of oiw of the smaller species of all)atrosses, 

 as the giant fulmar ( Ossi/rcif/a glf/aiitcd). The most essential external characters are 

 the tubular nostrils on top of the culmen, combined with long wings, and the presence 

 of a small hind toe. Inter se the members of this family group tlu'mselves aroimd 

 several somewhat diverging centres, forming more or less separate grou])s; most inter- 

 esting, as far as anatomical peculiarities are concerned, being the so-called sub-family 

 Ocear.itina-, which <'oin|>rises four genera of small stormy-])etrel-like birds, the most 

 striking feature of which are the small number of secondaries (ten only), the booteil 

 or transversely scutellate, but never reticulate tarsus, the flat and depressed claws, 

 the length of the tarsus, absence of colic ececn, presence of an accexsor;/ semilemli- 

 »^os(^'! muscle, etc. Ty]iical is Wilson's jietrel (Oceaiiitcs oceaiiict/), Wkty a '^Mother 

 Carey's chicken,' but with long, booted tarsus, and the wel)s between the toes yellow, 

 :md also belonging to the North American fauna, though its centre of distribution 

 .seems to be in the southern se;is. It breeds, among other ]ilaces, also on Kergut-len's 

 Island, to which the following sketch of its breeding-places by Rev. A. K. Eaton 



