Aves. 155 



Petrel was frequently seen at Cape Adare, and down near the Great 

 Ice Barrier. 



Mr. Borchgreviuk's account of the species is as follow^s (p. 220) : — 

 " The Gigantic Petrels also visited Camp Eidley. They were very 

 scarce during the summer, but we saw several of them during the 

 autumn. We did not find one of their nests, and their visits to 

 the peninsula were always short and interrupted ; and, to a great 

 extent, I ascribe their visits to Eobertson Bay and our peninsula to 

 strong gales at sea, which drove them in towards shore for shelter. 

 In fact, during the strongest gale we had in the autumn, they arrived 

 at Camp Eidley the day before the gale commenced, and left imme- 

 diately after it was over. So I, at least, came to look upon their 

 arrival as the sign of an approaching gale. These large birds, which 

 in their flight much resemble the Albatros, vary somewhat in colour 

 — perhaps as much as the Lestris — from dark brown to light faded 

 brown ; and albinos are occasionally seen. I secured one of these 

 latter, and Captain Jensen secured another. We had both of us great 

 difficulty in obtaining a specimen ; a noble, rare bird as he is, he 

 seemed to soar about higher and more lonely than the rest, and 

 remarkable was it that an albino — although of exactly the same 

 species as the dark one — was seldom or never seen in its company. 

 Whether this is because the others combine against him and hunt 

 him because of his whiteness, or because he, in modest ignorance of 

 his value, seeks his own sphere I do not know, but certain is it that 

 he, willingly or compulsorily, soared about in higher regions than the 

 rest." 



Mr. Burn-Murdoch, who was on the ' Balaena,^ gives the following 

 note on the species (p. 315) : — 



" A number of Nellies or Giant Petrels come circling over us as 

 we slowly drift from our shelter to leeward. They gorge themselves 

 with the * cran ' (scraps of Seals' flesh cut off the blubber : this name 

 is also given to the carcase of the Seal when its skin and blubber has 

 been stripped oft), that is constantly being thrown over our sides, then 

 fly back to the snow and sit down beside their Penguin friends. 

 Strange, ugly birds they are, the apparent coarseness of their build, 

 and their grey -green clumsy beaks and rough brown feathers, give the 

 impression that Nature has turned them out in a very wholesale 

 fashion. Some of them are partly white, and a few, of the same kind 

 of bird I believe, perhaps one in twenty, are pure white, all but one 

 or two brown feathers. The different stages of colouring are rather 

 like those of the Gannet. We call them ' Scavengers.' They appear 

 to be on a friendly footing with the living Penguins, and when one 



