100 BIRDS' NESTS 



the soft soil on or near the summit of a cliff. In 

 some cases one of these "earths" will shelter several 

 pairs of birds. The slight nest is made of dry grass, 

 moss, roots, and a few bits of lichen torn from the 

 surrounding rocks, whilst in exceptional cases the 

 single egg is laid upon the bare ground. Both these 

 Petrels are gregarious, and some of the colonies 

 contain a great many pairs of birds. Some of the 

 less familiar species are equally interesting in their 

 domestic arrangements. One of the most remarkable 

 of these bird-burrowers is the Spectacled Petrel 

 (Majaqueus cequinoctialis), a species that breeds on 

 Kerguelen Island. Some very interesting observa- 

 tions made by Mr R. Hall, and contributed to the 

 Ibis (1900, pp. 21, 22), may be aptly quoted here: " Of 

 eleven nests found, only one was in dry ground ; the 

 others were in hillsides, down which snow water ran 

 at all seasons of the year. The earth was simply 

 saturated with water, and in it were tunnels, always 

 beginning under a small cascade, and running back 

 for a distance varying from five to eight feet, and in 

 one instance I dug eleven feet to reach the egg. The 

 holes are in groups of from three to six, judging from 

 four colonies examined by myself. At the end of a 

 crooked tunnel is a semi-spherical cavity, with a flat 

 floor covered with water, and in the middle of this 

 space is a raised circular bed of rootlets, saucer-like, 

 inverted, with an indent just above the water-level." 

 Surely this is one of the most remarkable nests 



