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captured on the egg three were males. "While thus engaged we found quite a number of dead 

 birds and sucked eggs, evidently the work of the mice already mentioned, as their droppings 

 were to be seen all about the burrows, and the marks of their teeth upon the empty shells were 

 unmistakable. The birds, some of which were quite freshly killed and almost untouched, were 

 invariably done to death by being bitten at the nape of the neck, and in some cases most of the 

 brain had been eaten. It seems curious that these comparatively small mice should be able to 

 kill a bird several times larger than themselves, and provided with a fairly strong, hooked bill ; 

 but no doubt the Petrels get caught in the end of their burrow, and, being terrified, do not even 

 try to defend themselves. We obtained no young of this species, and the most advanced eggs 

 were but half incubated on April 27th. We never heard the call of this bird ; those flying over 

 the sea during the daytime were always perfectly silent so far as we heard, though they constantly 

 passed close to our tug, and there was no lack of them. When caught on their eggs they uttered 

 a short, grunting note, much like that given vent to by the domestic Pigeon under similar 

 circumstances. Our Lanzarote pilot informed us that numbers of these birds breed on the 

 Little Piton, where there are neither rats nor mice to interfere with them. ... A large series 

 of eggs measures T35-T48 by T0-T08 inch." 



I am indebted to Mr. Ogilvie Grant for two eggs of this Petrel, which are white finely 

 spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with pale red. 



The specimen figured and described is in my own collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined, besides the series in the British 

 Museum, the following specimens : — 



E Mus. II. E. Dresser. 



a, ad. Victoria, Teneriffe, May 1889; b, ad. Orotava, Teneriffe, March 22nd, 1889 (R. Gomez), c, $ ad., 

 d, ? ad. Great Salvage Island, April 29th, 1895 (Ogilvie Grant). 



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