SHEATHBILLS. 



265 



Vuj. 29. 



-The Yellow-billed Sbeath- 

 BILL (Chionis alba). 



greyish down, remain in the holes during the day, like youn<r petrels and 

 they are apparently night-feeders. ° ' 



Like Dromas, the sheathbills are very aberrant members of the Limicoline 

 group, and are only found on the islands of the Atlantic, such as the 

 Crozettes, Kerguelen, Marion Island, and the Falklands. 

 The species of the latter islands is Ghionis alha, the yellow- The SHeathbills 

 billed sheathbill, which is also found in Southern Patagonia, —Sub-order 

 and extends to the island of South Georgia and the land of Chionides. 

 the Antarctic Continent. The species inhabiting Kerguelen 

 and Marion Islands is Ghionarchus minor, which has a black bill, and does 

 not exhibit the wattles on the face found in Ghionis alba. The form of the 

 sheath is also somewhat different, though 

 both show a tube-like opening on the 

 base of the bill, something like that of a 

 petrel. In the bird from the Crozettes 

 {Ghionarchus crozettensis) this petrel-like 

 opening to the sheath is absent, and the 

 bird is smaller than G. minor, and has 

 darker legs. 



The Rev. A. E. Eaton gives an amusing 

 account of the habits of the sheathbills in 

 Kerguelen Island during the visit of the 

 "Transit of Venus Expedition" to that 

 place. They were common where the 

 coast was rooky and sheltered, and were 

 Been in flocks of as many as thirty, but during the breeding season they were 

 met with only in pairs. They were very tame and inquisitive, and suffered 

 considerably in consequence during the stay of the expedition, as they could 

 often be knocked on the head with a stick. Mr. Eaton writes . — "They 

 were also very assiduous in their attendance on the colonies of shags and 

 crested penguins, whose eggs they greedily devoured. The sitting birds 

 stretched out their necks and croaked at the sheathbills sauntering past their 

 nests ; but the marauders, keeping just out of reach of iheir bills, paid little 

 regard to them, and proceeded in a business-like manner to eat up the first 

 eggs they chanced to find unguarded. It occasionally happened that while 

 an old shag was gesticulating violently at a Ghionis in front of her, his friend 

 pecked from behind at the eggs, which, in the excitement of the moment, 

 were not completely covered by her. When she found out what was taking 

 place she drove him away with a croak, and, true to her sex, aft'ected to have 

 won her point in the affray. Reseating herself upon the nest with great 

 dignity of deportment, and gently replacing with her bill the broken eggs 

 under her feathers, she resigned herself to the task of trying to hatch them. 

 Some time after the sheathbills have gone away the broken eggs are in- 

 spected, and if there is only a small hole pecked in each of them they are 

 kept in the nest. Their appearance and manner of caressing one another 

 led the blue-jackets to call sheathbills ' white pigeons.' In their gait and 

 flight they closely resemble ptarmigan ; and like these they utter iheir cry 

 when starting on the wing, as well as during flight. After they have attained 

 a fair rate of speed, they sail along from time to time with outstretched 

 wings. On alighting at their destination they often greet one another with 

 a gentle chuckle, nodding their heads the while." 



The eggs of the sheathbills are plentifully marked, and resemble those of 



