448 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



happens to do so it is at once hunted by a ' Nelly ' {Ossifraga 

 gigantea), although no such jealousy exists at sea. From this 

 habit of flying only by night it is called ' Night Hawk ' by 

 the sealers. 



" Mr. Harris's party, when wrecked on Kerguelen's Land, 

 used to dig these birds out of their burrows and eat them ; 

 and, in order to save useless digging, for their spades were 

 only made from the staves of old casks, they would hold one 

 to the mouth of a hole and make it cry out, when, if another 

 was inside, it would answer. This is by far the best diver of 

 all the sea-going Petrels. It seems even fond of it, and more- 

 over remains under water for several minutes, when it comes 

 up again, shaking the water off its feathers like a dog. Some- 

 times I have seen it poise itself for a moment in the air at a 

 height of about twenty or twenty five feet above the sea, and, 

 shutting its wings, take a header into the water. It dives 

 with its wings open, and uses them under water much in 

 the same manner as when flying." 



Little or no difference is observable in the sexes, but the 

 female is rather smaller than the male ; neither did I observe 

 any of the individuals that surrounded the ship to be of a 

 darker colour. In all probability, the young attain their 

 normal colouring at their first moult. I quite agree with 

 Captain Hutton in considering this bird to be aUied to the 

 members of the genus Piijflnus. 



Crown of the head, ear-coverts, nape and upper surface, 

 tips of the tail-feathers, tips of the under tail-coverts, and the 

 primaries dark brownish grey ; throat, chest, and under sur- 

 face white ; irides dark brown ; culmen and nostrils black ; 

 tip of the upper mandible blackish horn-colour ; tomia whitish 

 horn-colour ; lower part of the under mandible blackish horn- 

 colour ; feet white, tinged with blue, the outer toe brownish 

 black. 



