82 E. LÖNNBERG, CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FAUNA OF SOUTH GEORGIA. 



were heard in their burrows emitting a shrill, quavering whistling. This was not 

 heard, however, at a distance, but just when one approached within about 10 m. 

 The wbistling was repeated with short intervals, even when the digging had begun. 

 The burrows were situated on a small plateau about 10 — 12 m. above the surface 

 of the sea. The access to this plateau was sloping gently on one side, quite steep 

 towards the sea on two sides, and on the fourth the mountain rose. The plateau 

 was covered by tussock. And the openings to the burrows were found at the ground, 

 at the base of the tussock hills. Usually the burrows were horizontal. In the open- 

 ing they were wider without sharply defined limits, but soon they became rather 

 narrow, hardly more than about 10 cm. in diameter. A t the inner end the burrow 

 expanded to the nest, the horizontal diameter of which was about 45 cm. 



The birds were during the breeding season never seen flying about -in the day 

 ti me near their nests nor feeding in the bay. 



Hall (13) made the observation on Kerguelen Island that Majaqueus made its 

 burrow in places where the ground was thoroughly satiated with water and that the 

 opening often was placed under a small cascade. The floor of the nest-cavity was 

 covered by water and in the middle was »a raised circular bed of rootlets, saucer- 

 like, inverted, with an indent just above the water-level. » Hall (13) found only 

 one egg in each nest. 



von den Steinen (12) speaks also about a nest of grass in the sodden bur- 

 row of Majaqueus. 



W. Eagle Clark e (21) states that Majaqueus does not breed on the South 

 Orkney Islands. 



Tlialässoeca antarctica (Gmelin) 1788. 



Syn.: ProceUaria antarctica Gmelin 1788. 



Thalassoeca » Reichenbach 1852. 



^ off t lie coast of Smith Georgia the It of August 1905. »Tils brovvn». 



This bird is not recorded for the fauna of South Georgia by the German Ex- 

 pedition 1882 — 83, nor by the Swedish Expedition 1902. The same day as the spe- 

 cimen recorded above was shot, several more specimens of the same kind was seen 

 about 6 english miles off the coast, but none was seen entering Cumberland Bay. 

 It does not seem probable that it breeds on South Georgia. 



The specimen collected by Sörltng had some beaks of cephalopods in its 

 stomach. 



