390 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



else, for after passing round it two or three times, it wings its 

 way again over the expansive ocean until lost to sight; it is 

 as often seen a thousand miles from land as it is near the 

 coast, and I was for a long time surprised how a bird of this 

 family could exist so far from any apparent means of repose, 

 until the difficulty was at last solved by my seeing the bird 

 settle on the masses of sea-weeds which here and there float 

 about in all seas, and on which it rested with as much ease as 

 if standing on a rock. So little difference is observable be- 

 tween the examples of the Southern Ocean and those found 

 in our own seas, that I have been compelled to consider them 

 to belong to the same species. It was nowhere more abun- 

 dant than off the coast of Tasmania, and may be frequently 

 seen in Storm Bay at the mouth of the-Derwent ; it may also 

 be seen off New Zealand and all similar latitudes round the 

 globe ; and that it also visits higher latitudes is evidenced by 

 a note with which I have been favoured by R. McCormick, 

 Esq., Surgeon R.N., wherein he states that it is found as far 

 south as Kerguelen's Land and Campbell Island. 



In a letter from Mr. Macgillivray, dated on board H.M.S. 

 Rattlesnake, Feb. 6, 1848, that gentleman says, "The Sterco- 

 rarius catarrhactes was noticed on various occasions in differ- 

 ent parts of the South Indian Ocean ; while off the Cape of 

 Good Hope a solitary individual and subsequently two in 

 company were seen. I have observed it following and hover- 

 ing over a bait towing astern, and once saw it chase a Cape 

 Petrel and force it to alight on the water. This bird seldom 

 remained with us for more than half an hour at a time, dur- 

 ing which it made a few circular flights about the ship." 



Captain F. W. Hutton in his notes on some of the birds 

 inhabiting the Southern Ocean, published in the * Ibis ' for 

 1865, p. 276, says : — " This bird does not skim over the 

 water like the Petrels, but flies low with a heavy slow flap- 

 ping of its roundish-looking wings, and is therefore easily re- 

 cognized. It is rare at sea north of latitude 45° S., one 



