I So kerguelen's land. 



volunteered to dig up birds and eggs for our collection. This 

 is the method by which very many of the birds of Kerguelen 

 are most readily procured. The peaty ground beneath the 

 Azorella is perforated everywhere with holes of various petrels. 

 Those of the Prion {Prion desolatiis) are most numerous. They 

 are about big enough to admit the hand, but the nest and egg 

 are nearly always far out of reach, the holes going in a yard 

 and a half sometimes. 



The Prion is a small grey bird, a petrel from the form of the 

 nostrils, but with a broad boat-shaped bill, with extremely fine 

 horny lainellce, projecting on either margin of the bill inside. 

 The bird flies like a swallow, and was nearly always to be seen 

 in flocks about the ship, or cruising over the sea, or attendant 

 on a whale to pick up the droppings from its mouth. Hence 

 it is termed by sealers the " Whale-bird." Its food, as that of 

 all the petrels except the carrion ones, seems to consist of the 

 very abundant surface animals of the south seas, especially of 

 small Crustacea. These form also, apparently, the only food 

 of the penguins ; for the stomachs of all the penguins which 

 we examined were crammed with them only. The Prion lays 

 a single white egg. 



Besides the Prion there is the " Mutton-bird " of the whalers 

 {CEstreiata Lessoni), a large Procellarid, as big as a pigeon, 

 white and brown and grey in colour. It makes a much larger 

 hole than the Prion, six inches in diameter, and long in 

 proportion. At the end is a round chamber with a slight 

 elevation in the centre, where the nest is somewhat raised, 

 with a deeper passage all round ; at least, I saw this in two 

 nests. The old bird is very savage when pulled out. It 

 makes a shrill cry, and bites hard, the sharp decurved tip of 

 the upper mandible being driven right through a man's finger 

 if he is not careful in handling the bird. I'he egg is white, 

 and about the size of a hen's. 



Another petrel, Majaqjietis a'quinoctialis, which also is often 

 to be seen cruising after the ship, but then always solitary, is 

 called the " Cape Hen " by ordinary sailors, and " Black 

 Night Hawk " by the whalers. It makes a hole, larger a good 

 deal than that of the Mutton-bird, and nearly always witn its 

 mouth opening on a small pool of water, or in a very damp 

 place. The hole is deep under the ground and very long, two 

 yards or more. The birds seem to make their holes in certain 

 places in company. At one place, on the shores of Greenland 

 Harbour, I found a number of such holes, all within a small 

 area. The bird utters a peculiar prolonged and high pitched 

 cry, either when dug into on the nest and handled, or on going 

 into the hole and finding its mate there. 



