THE GIANT PETREL. 95 
We first met with the Giant Petrel in 35°S. lat. on September 21st, when we 
were in the South Atlantic Ocean. It was in this case the darkest variety of all, with 
a lemon yellow bill, the variety that may with some truth be called black. Again, on 
October 22nd, in 45°S. lat., we saw the bird in the Southern Indian Ocean, and this 
example was also black. From that day onward we had one or two with us almost 
constantly between 45° S. lat., in 51° E., and the ice pack in 61°S. lat. and 143° E., 
and thence to New Zealand. At the Macquarie Islands we obtained one of the paler 
grey variety, the lightest in colour that we had seen in coming from the west; and a 
few days later, in passing up the western side of the Auckland Islands, we saw Ossifraga 
in very large numbers, almost all of which seemed to be somewhat small and grey 
instead of brownish black, as though they were perhaps the hen birds or the young 
of a nesting colony. On November 23rd, when we had passed to the north of the 
Macquarie Islands, we first saw the wholly white variety, and this was in lat. 55°, 
between 300 and 400 miles to the north of the ice pack we had then just left. 
After leaving New Zealand we went due south to South Victoria Land, and after 
cruising eastward along the Great Ice Barrier to long. 152° W., we spent two years in 
McMurdo Sound, returning thence again to New Zealand by way of the Balleny and 
Auckland Islands. From New Zealand we made the homeward journey through 
the Magellan Straits and by the Falkland Islands, and throughout the whole of this part 
of our voyage to as far north as 33° 8. in 20° W. lat. we were accompanied by 
Ossifraga in greater or lesser numbers. 
The whole distance covered in the Southern Oceans was thus about 22,000 miles, and 
we were much struck by the way in which the several phases appeared and disappeared 
from time to time. In the open ocean, and in the more temperate regions throughout 
September and October, we saw only the largest and blackest birds, in good condition 
and with clear lemon yellow bills. On approaching the ocean islands of Macquarie 
and the Aucklands in November we came into a region frequented almost wholly by 
the smaller and greyer phase or variety, sometimes in great numbers, and these all 
apparently in full moult, but although we must have seen in all many hundreds, we 
had met with as yet one only that was wholly white, and that in the rather higher ranges of 
the temperate latitudes. Between New Zealand and the ice we again saw the grey 
birds moulting off Campbell Island on December 26th and 27th, and somewhat darker 
birds on December 29th. In the pack ice we saw one or two of the darker birds, 
but they became more numerous as we neared the coast at Cape Adare, and one 
might there constantly see two or three upon the floes running along with wide 
ungainly straddling legs, unable to rise after feeding on some dead Adélie Penguin. 
On January 9th, when we came to Cape Adare, we were surprised to see a collection 
of Giant Petrels standing on the shore, about a dozen of which were wholly white. 
In all there must have been two or three dozen birds, the majority of which 
were black, dark grey and brown, though some had paler heads, and some had 
heads quite white, with darker bodies. They were less tame and more suspicious 
M 2 
