364 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Apwl 



a search for the nesting grounds might quite possibly be well 

 repaid. 



It is, further, a fact not widely understood that this bird leaves 

 the Antarctic Seas during the winter months, and is then to be 

 found in large numbers in the South Pacific Ocean, away from ice 

 and out of sight of icebergs. 



The blue-grey Southern Fulmar petrel (Priocella glacialoides), 

 a bird of wider range, is to be seen during the winter months in 

 large numbers about the Magellan Straits. In the summer it is 

 constantly met with in the pack, but, so far as is known, does not 

 breed within the Circle. We saw it more abundantly around the 

 Balleny Isles than elsewhere, and its absence was particularly 

 noticeable south of Cape Adare — so much so that along the coast 

 of South Victoria Land and in McMurdo Sound it was never 

 seen. 



The Wilson's Stormy petrel (Oceanites oceanicus) is to be found 

 in Ross Sea throughout the summer months, but very rarely came 

 so far south as McMurdo Sound. We discovered its burrow on 

 Cape Adare, and after excavating it sufficiently to admit an arm, 

 we found a nest of penguins' feathers on hard blue ice, with two 

 adult birds, a male and a female, a fresh egg, an addled egg, and a 

 flattened dead bird under all. 



This little petrel is a great wanderer in the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere as well as in the South, and we ourselves twice saw it 

 apparently exploring the Great Ice Barrier in latitude 78 some 

 twenty miles from the nearest open water, where alone it could 

 find its food, which consists of minute crustaceans. 



The Snow petrel (Pagodroma nlvea) is perhaps the most beauti- 

 ful of all the Southern petrels. In size about as big as a turtle 

 dove, it is pure white all over, with black eyes and bill and feet. 

 It hovers about the ship often in considerable flocks, and was our 

 most constant companion so long as we had ice in sight during the 

 summer months of cruising. It was a rare visitor to our winter 

 quarters, and, so far as we could discover, did not breed in 

 McMurdo Sound. Its eggs were taken by McCormick on the 

 Cockburn Islands, and since then by members of the ' Southern 

 Cross' expedition on Cape Adare. It drops down most daintily 

 to pick up little shrimp-like crustaceans from the ice-floes as they 

 are stranded by the breaking surf. 



There is a question of much interest in the reason for the 

 individual variation in the size of this bird, which varies between 



