HT7TT0N — OX THE BIRDS OP THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 233 



of a jackdaw's. I am unable to say whether these are young or very 

 old birds ; but as their legs and feet are yellow, I incline to the latter 

 opinion. It breeds in the inaccessible cliff's of Kerguelen's Land and 

 the Prince Edward Islands, and Mr. Harris was never able to get at 

 a nest. It has an unpleasant habit of screeching at night, and is called 

 " Pee-u" by the sealers. Sir J. Ross mentions that he saw young 

 birds fully fledged, and, as he says, " ready to go to sea," in May, at 

 Kerguelen's Land ; and, as no mention is made of old birds, this species 

 may have the same habit of deserting its young that D. exulans has. 

 It is, however, so shy, that Mr. Harris made very few observations on 

 its habits. The remarks of Mr. Gould, that this bird is very wary, 

 and seldom caught, and that it alone of all the Petrels flies directly over 

 the ship, are quite correct. 



Procellaria gigantea (Gmel.) — Giant Petrel. — This bird breeds in 

 the cliffs of the Prince Edward Islands and Kerguelen's Land, but the 

 nests can be got at occasionally. The young are at first covered with 

 a beautiful long light-grey down ; when fledged they are dark brown, 

 mottled with white. When a person approaches the nest, the old birds 

 keep a short distance away, while the young ones squirt a horridly smell- 

 ing oil out of their mouths to a distance of six or eight feet. It is very 

 voracious, hovering over the sealers when engaged cutting up a seal, and 

 devouring the carcase the moment it is left, a thing the Albatross never 

 does. It is the "Mother Carey's Goose" of Cook, and the "Nelly" 

 of sailors. It sometimes chases the "Night Hawk" (P. hcesitata), but 

 Mr. Harris has never seen it kill one. Whether or not it can catch a 

 bird possessed apparently of powers of flight superior to its own is 

 doubtful; but, supposing one killed, that it feeds only on its heart 

 and liver, I cannot believe, although it is said to do so in the works 

 of many first-rate ornithologists — a statement which seems to have been 

 copied from Lord Macartney's " Embassy to China" in 1712, and since 

 handed down from one naturalist to another as an heirloom. 



Procellaria cequinoctialis (L.) — Black Petrel. — Black, with a white 

 mark, generally crescent-shaped, but very variable, on each cheek ; 

 chin white; beak yellow, with a white tip; legs and feet black. As 

 the plumage of the bird here described is intermediate between the P. 

 cequinoctialis of Linnaeus and the P. conspicillata of Gould, I agree 

 with Dr. Gray in ranking them as one species only. It is not 

 known on Prince Edward Islands, nor on Kerguelen's Land, and I 

 have only seen it in the South Atlantic between lat 26° south and 

 lat. 35° south. Among sailors it rejoices in the name of " Stink Pot." 



Procellaria hmitata (Licht.) — Great Grey Petrel. — This bird com- 

 bines the appearance of a Procellaria with some of the habits of a Puf- 

 finus. Its feathers fit very close, and have a glossy look. Like all 

 other Petrels, it flies with its legs stretched straight out behind, and as in 

 this bird they are rather long, they make the tail appear forked. Its 

 cry is something like the bleating of a lamb. The young bird has been 

 figured and described by Dr. Andrew Smith in his " Illustrations of 



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