LJFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 91 



shearwaters or both. Mr. EoUo H. Beck and I thought we recog- 

 nized both species, as they flapped away almost under our bow, but 

 I have since decided that any such identification would be worth- 

 less, as it is difficult to distinguish the two species even in the hand. 

 Whatever the species may have been, its numbers were beyond esti- 

 mate, the smooth surface of the sea was covered with them for miles 

 and miles, a vast multitude, far greater than I had ever seen, or 

 ever conceived, and as we passed through this great sea of birds 

 they merely parted under our bow sufficiently to let us pass. After 

 seeing such a spectacle, I can more easily believe the accounts I 

 have read of the astonishing abundance of the "mutton bird," as 

 this shearwater is called, on its breeding grounds about New Zea- 

 land, Australia, and Tasmania. 



The following remarkable statement by Flinders, quoted by A. J. 

 Campbell (1901), seems almost incredible: 



A large flock of gannets was observed at daylight, and they were followed 

 by such a number of sooty petrels as we had never seen equaled. There was a 

 stream of from 50 to 80 yards in depth and 300 yards or more in breadth. The 

 birds were not scattered, but were flying as compactly as a free movement of 

 their wings seemed to allow, and during a full hour and a half this stream of 

 petrels continued to pass without interruption, at a rate little inferior to the 

 swiftness of the pigeon. On the lowest computation, I think the number could 

 not have been less than a hundred millions. Taking the stream to have been 

 fifty yards deep by three hundred in width, and that it moved at the rate of 

 thirty miles an hour, and allowing nine cubic yards of space to each bird, the 

 numbers would amount to 151,500,000; the burrows required to lodge this 

 quantity would be 75,750,000 ; and allowing a square yard to each burrow, they 

 would cover something more than 18i geographical square miles of ground. 



Nesting. — Of the several accounts that have been published I have 

 selected the following, by the Rt. Kev. H. H. Montgomery, D. D.^ 

 bishop of Tasmania (1898), which describes most fully and graphic 

 cally the nesting habits of the slender-billed shearwater in the neigh- 

 borhood of Bass Strait, Australia : 



For many years, as episcopal duties have called me to the Furneaux Islands 

 in Bass Strait, I have given attention to the habits of what is locally called 

 the "mutton-bird." This petrel is now adequately protected by an act of the 

 Tasmanian Parliament; and although some 400,000 young birds are salted 

 down for consumption In a good year, chiefly by half-castes, yet there is no 

 chance of the extinction of this species under present conditions. The day 

 may come, indeed, when the population of these islands shall have Increased 

 so much that fresh legislation may have to be initiated, but that day has not 

 yet arrived. There are also numerous islands near the Victorian coast, at 

 present absolutely unvisited,' swarming with these birds. The absence of 

 boat harbors, and as well as of fresh water and wood, protect these summer 

 visitors from depredators. The following facts may be taken as accurate; 

 there is certainly no difference of opinion about them among the people who 

 have spent their lives in these islands : The mutton-bird (Pufflnus tenuirostris) 

 appears with the greatest regularity about September 17th in these waters. 



