78 EDWAED A. WILSON. 



On January 9th we made a landing on Cape Adare, and had some hours which 

 we occupied in hunting for this and other birds' nests. It was presumably late for 

 nests, but we were lucky in at last locating one. The birds were to be seen hovering 

 round the mouth of crevices in the rocky side of the cliff, often settling close by for a 

 few seconds, and then sailing in short circles round it, reminding dhe strongly of the 

 movements of a House Martin at its nest under the eaves of a country barn. 



Two of these crevices could not be reached, but soon we saw a bird hover round 

 and settle upon a large boulder. Hunting about for a burrow underneath, we caught 

 the sound of twittering, and traced it to a kind of mouse-hole. This by dint of long 

 and tedious picking with a sheath-knife, we enlarged till it admitted an arm up to the 

 shoulder. The work was laborious, as the floor of the burrow was hard black ice and 

 grit, but eventually we reached the nest. At the end of the little tunnel was a 

 chamber containing a very comfortable nest thickly lined with Adelie Penguins' 

 feathers, and in it a somewhat remarkable collection. First we brought out an adult 

 male alive, then an adult female ; then two eggs, one clean and newly laid, the other 

 old and rotten, and under all another dead and flattened adult Oceanites. Outside, as 

 we worked, a fourth bird was hovering, which, when shot, proved to be an adult male. 

 It has been long known that with this species the nesting burrow is often used by 

 more than a single pair. The fresh egg was preserved, the rotten one fell to pieces, 

 and the three birds were preserved. 



Not a day now passed in our summer cruising on which we did not see a few 

 Wilson's Petrels. Never in large numbers, they were, nevertheless, never absent, and 

 it was not until February 7th that we saw the last, in 1902. 



At the approach of winter they disappeared from the southernmost regions, and 

 no doubt migrated north. Though the ice of Ross Sea was many times broken up by 

 storms during winter and early spring, the little Wilson's Petrel was not to be seen in 

 McMurdo Sound from the end of February to the middle of December. In December 

 and in January of 1903 to 1904, while we were camped on the sea ice under 

 Dellbridge Islands, we saw quite a number of them, but though the rough volcanic 

 rocks and boulders were apparently much frequented, we found no nest there. 

 Nor could we find them nesting at Cape Royds, which seemed more suitable, being 

 some miles nearer to open water and their food supply. 



The burrows are not very difficult to discover, for one's attention is drawn to them 

 by the habit the bird has of hovering round the entrance in the evening hours, and 

 settling there without actually going in, and also sometimes by the twittering of the 

 bird within. They are often quite inaccessible without a rope even when located, but 

 on the other hand they may be almost on level ground. 



The flight of the bird is peculiarly attractive in these barren wastes of snow and 

 rock, chiefly perhaps, from its resemblance to the flight of the familiar martin, for it 

 flits here and there exactly as though in search of insects on the wing. Occasionally 

 it sails on outstretched wings. The power of flight must be very wonderful, for it 



