202 Campbell and White, BzV(^s oh Capricorn Group. \^^"l 



Emu 

 )ec. 



his weight, of a subterranean burrow. Again we were too early 

 for the harvest of eggs for food or for the collection. Probably 

 these Petrels would commence to lay about the middle of Novem- 

 ber, if not sooner. 



North-West Island Observations. — On our arrival at North- West 

 Island not a Petrel was to be seen, although one was falling up to 

 the thigh in their burrows at every second step. We were more 

 than anxious to solve the doubt of the species which selected these 

 islands to breed, as some persons were under the impression that it 

 was our common Mutton-Bird (P. tenuirostris). Fortunately, four 

 days before we left two partially-eaten birds (killed by cats) were 

 brought in, and their black bills and flesh-coloured feet solved the 

 mystery. Next day burrows were seen cleaned out, and on the 

 following evening great numbers came in to renovate their breeding- 

 holes, and the morning we left birds were trying to climb over 

 our tents in their efforts to get to the sea just at the break of day. 

 We did not see the birds on Tryon Island, but that island is honey- 

 combed with burrows. 



A critical examination of the skins of this Petrel has, we think, 

 cleared up some important doubts. In the first place the birds, 

 with their dark bills, agree with Gould's figures (" Birds of Aus- 

 tralia," vol. vii., pi. 58), but it is unfortunate that the great 

 ornithologist has allowed " bill reddish-fleshy " to creep into his 

 accompanying letterpress. This must have been merely a slip 

 of the pen, because Mr. A. J. Campbell obtained similar birds 

 with dark bills on Abrolhos Islands, W.A.,* where Gilbert pro- 

 cured Gould's types of Piiffimis spheniinis. 



Dr. F. Du Cane Godman, in his recently published and excellent 

 " Monograph of the Petrels, "f sinks the name sphenurtis in favour 

 of chlororhynchus, and figures the bird with a reddish bill, from 

 the Seychelles Archipelago. 



Puffinus chloiorhynchiis may, as Gould stated, frequent Aus- 

 tralian seas, J but the birds which breed on the islands imme- 

 diately off both the east and west coasts of Australia undoubtedly 

 are P. sphemirus, accoi^ding to Gould's original figures. 



It is interesting to note (page 226) that on Raine Island, at the 

 other end of the Great Barrier Reef, between 800 and 900 miles 

 north, Drs. Macgillivray and Dobbyn procured the same species of 

 Mutton-Bird (the dark-billed one) as was secured on the Capri- 

 corns ; therefore it is reasonable to suppose that this species breeds 

 along those leagues of sea on many islets suitable to its purpose. 

 Specimens from the Capricorns and Raine Island are identical in 

 measurements, namely (in inches) : — Length, 16 ; wing, iif : bill 

 {i.e., culmen), i| : tail, 6 ; tarsus, i| ; middle toe and claw, 2 J. 

 General Description. — All upper surface dark 'chocolate-brown or 

 sooty-black, lighter on the tips of feathers of wing coverts, and 

 deepening into black on the primaries and tail ; chin and throat 



* " Proc. A. A. A. Science," vol. ii. (1890), p. 495. 



+ Part ii., p. 84, pi. 24. 



Z " Handbook Birds of Australia," vol. ii., p. 406. 



