258 



A VES— ORDER PROCELLARIIFORMES. 



mans shearwater, is resident and breeds on St. Kilda, as well as in other 

 places in the west of Europe. Like all other members of their family, the 

 shearwaters are birds of rapid flight, and may be seen in 

 The Shearwaters iiocks far out at sea, apparently revelling in the rough 

 and Fulmars. — weather. 



Family The fulmar-petrels (sub-family Fulmarince) are also very 



Puffinida. widely distributed over all the oceans, and some of them 

 are as large as gulls, one species, Ossifraga gigantm, 

 from the Southern Seas, being as large as some of the albatroses. The 

 common fulmar - petrel (Fulmarus glacialis) is a well-known inhabitant 

 of the seas of Arctic Europe, and nests on St. Kilda and the Shetland 

 Islands. 



The diving-petrels {PehcanokUdce) are curious little birds from the Southern 

 Seas, which have much the appearance of the little auk {Mergulus alh)ol 

 the Northern Hemisphere. Mr. Eaton says that, like that species, the diving- 

 petrels have a hurried flight, and dive into the sea without any interruption 

 of the action of their wings; both also emerge from beneath the surface fly- 

 ing, and they both swim with their tails rather deep in the water. This 

 resemblance, he says, does not extend to other particulars of their habits. 

 The little auk, when breeding, usually flies and fishes in small flocks of six or 

 a dozen birds, and nests in communities of considerable size, which are ex- 

 ceedingly noisy. Diving-petrels, on the other hand, are more domestic in 

 their mode of living, fishiiig and flying for the most part in pairs or alone, 

 and nest .sporadically. Their burrows are about as small in diameter as the 

 holes of bank martins or kingfisiiers. Tlicy are made in dry banks and 

 slopes where the ground is easily penetrable, and terminate in an enlarged 

 chamber, on the flour of which the egg is deposited. There is no specially 

 constructed nest. Some of the burrows are branched, but the branches are 

 without terminal enlargements, and do not appear to be put to any use by 

 the birds. 



The family of albatroses or Diomedeiddi contains three genera, Diomedea 

 with nine species of true albatroses, Tlialassogeron, orculminated albatroses, with 



five species, and Pluehetria, or 

 sooty albatroses, with a single 

 species. Most of the members 

 of this family are birds of wide 

 range, whence the common 

 species gets its name of "wan- 

 dering." Tliey are remarkable 

 for their wide extent of wing 

 and their graceful and sus- 

 tained flight. At certain periods 

 of tlie year they resort to the 

 islands in the Southern oceans 

 to breed, and the gatherings 

 which take place are some- 

 times incredible. Tlius on the 

 island of Laysan, in the Pacific, 

 thousands upon thousands of 

 eggs of the white, albatros 

 {Diomedea immvtahilis) are collected. Mr. Palmer, who visited this island 

 on behalf of the Hon. Walter Rotlischild, says that the birds literally covered 



Fig. 23.- 



-TttR "W^'ANDRKTWa Ar,BATR08 



(JJiomedea exulans). 



