298 



us further that on visiting Recherche Bay in D'Entrecasteaux's Channel, Tasmania, he found 

 thousands of these birds sitting together on the water, and feeding on the blubber and other 

 refuse of the whaling-station. 



The following account of this Petrel (called Quebranta-huesos, or Break-bones, by the 

 Spaniards) is given in Darwin's * Voyage of a Naturalist,' (p. 287) : — " In its habits and manner of 

 flight there is a very close resemblance with the Albatros ; and, as with the Albatros, a person 

 may watch it for hours together without seeing on what it feeds. The * Break-bones ' is, how^- 

 ever, a rapacious bird ; for it was observed by some of the officers at Port St. Antonio chasing a 

 Diver, which tried to escape by diving and flying, but was continually struck down, and at last 

 killed by a blow on its head. At Port St. Julian these great Petrels were seen killing and 

 devouring young Gulls." 



I may add that on one occasion, when steaming up Cook's Strait, I observed at a distance 

 one of these Giant Petrels pursue and capture a small bird (apparently Prion turtur), and then, 

 holding it by the wing, batter it against the water till it was killed. 



Captain Hutton states that this species breeds in the cliffs of the Prince-Edward Islands 

 and Kerguelen's Land, and adds : — " When a person approaches the nest the old birds keep a 

 short distance away, while the young ones squirt a horridly smelling oil out of their mouths to 

 a distance of six or eight feet." Layard describes the eggs as being white, and measuring 

 4*2 inches in length by 2*5 in breadth. 



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