BIRDS. 229 
each pair of birds, laid in January or February, in some crevice or 
hole among shattered rocks or large boulders; the egg, as usual with 
the Petrels, being of a dull white colour, with minute purplish-red 
spots tending to form a zone at the broader end: measurements, 1:3 
by ‘9in. Subsequently, Mr. R. Hall has contributed some interest- 
ing details on the breeding of this, as well as other species, on Ker- 
guelen.* Both sexes, he says, take turns at incubation, and about 
8 p.m. the ‘night-shift’ comes in from the sea to go on duty, when 
the relief is marked by loud croakings; and few birds are to be 
seen over the land in the day-time. After the breeding-season 
Wilson’s Petrel wanders widely; and, owing to the fact that it has 
been often observed on the coasts of Western Europe, including the 
British Islands, as well as on those of America up to Labrador, some 
ornithologists have assumed that it bred on the islands of the North 
Atlantic. Of this there is not the slightest proof; on the contrary, 
some of the birds obtained between the spring and autumn of our 
Northern Hemisphere are in moult. 
Specimens of all the small Petrels are much wanted, and no oppor- 
tunity of obtaining them should be wasted. If the vessel should be 
going slowly through the water, long threads trailing from the taffrail 
and slightly weighted at the end by a bit of sennit or suda-water 
bottle-wire, are very successful in causing an ‘entanglement,’ and 
when the birds have been identified and the latitude and longitude 
recorded, they can be liberated, if not required. It is only in this 
manner that any definite knowledge can be obtained of the areas 
visited by these wandering species. 
Passing to the large family which comprises the stouter Petrels, 
known as the Puffinide, among the species especially characteristic 
of the Antarctic seas is the snow-white Ick PETREL, Pagodroma nivea, 
with satin-like plumage, jet-black eyes and bill, and graceful flight. 
This bird has been obtained as far north as the Falkland Islands, but 
it does not occur in any numbers until lat. 60° S. is passed, whence 
it can be traced as far southward as man has penetrated. Every 
expedition has noticed it; Ross found it laying its bluish-white egg, 
measuring 2°2 by 1°6 in., among the crevices of the cliffs at, Cockburn 
Island; Surgeon Webster, of H.M.S. Chanticleer, met with the bird 
from January to March on Deception Island, South Shetlands ; and the 
German expedition found it nesting at the end of December on South 
Georgia. From the Enderby Quadrant it has not yet been recorded. 
Another species is the ANTARCTIC PETREL (Zhalasseca antarctica), 
‘which was found by the Hrebus and Terror expedition as far as 
* ‘This,’ 1900, p. 19. 
