CYMODROMA MELANOGASTER. 



Brit. Mus., I., p. 151, PI. XII. , Fig. 2). The Rev. A. E. Eaton procured specimens in 

 Royal Sound, but did not find the nest (Sharpe, Phil. Trans., Vol. CXLVHL, p. 30). Mr. 

 Robert Hall was also unsuccessful in finding the eggs, but believes that the nesting-place 

 was somewhere at the north-west end of Royal Sound ; he says that the bird was seen 

 at both ends of the island, but not in the same numbers as the yellow-webbed Wilson's 

 Petrel (Ibis, 1890, p. 21). 



Pagenstecker, in his account of the birds of South Georgia, recorded 0. melanogaster 

 as breeding on these islands (JB. Hamb. Wiss. Anst, II., p. 18, 1884), but its 

 occurrence so far to the westward suggested a doubt as to its correct identification 

 (cf. Howard Saunders, Antarctic Manual, p. 228). That the record is authentic can 

 now scarcely be questioned, for the Scottish Antarctic Expedition found this 

 Storm-Petrel nesting on the South Orkney Islands, and Dr. Pirie obtained eggs 

 (Eagle Clarke, Ibis, 1906, pp. 150, 168). In describing the collections made by the 

 naturalists of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, he states that Dr. Pirie was attracted 

 by a low whistling sound proceeding from a crevice in a rock on the east side of 

 Uruguay Cove, Laurie Island, about fifteen feet above the sea. On climbing up he 

 discovered what was apparently a couple of Wilson's Petrels, and he managed to 

 secure the female. Two eggs, badly broken in the endeavour to capture the birds, 

 were found near the mouth of the crevice, one of them obviously of a previous season, 

 the other deeply incubated. No other birds were noticed, though search was made 

 for the male, which had escaped. 



An egg was procured by the " Challenger" Expedition from the Falkland Islands, 

 and is now in the British Museum. 



Off the coast of the South American continent this Petrel was observed by 

 Professor Giglioli during the voyage of the " Magenta," in Lat. 38° 22' S., Long. 

 47° 42' E., on the 7th February, 1866, five days from Montevideo, when it followed 

 the ship till the 10th April, and again from the Straits of Magellan to Montevideo, 

 becoming less frequent as the latter town was neared (Faun. Vertebr. Oceano, p. 168). 



Four eggs are in the British Museum. One from the " Challenger " Expedition, 

 obtained in Kerguelen Island, is dull white, with a faint pinkish shade at one end, 

 sprinkled with dots of the same colour, which are also seen over the rest of the 

 egg ; there is a slight indication of purplish dots, which are, however, scarcely 

 perceptible : axis, 1.45 inch ; diam., 1.03. The Falkland Island specimen is very 

 long and thin, and measures 1.25 inch by 0.73 ; the scarcely perceptible markings 

 are of a dull purplish grey. Two eggs bequeathed to the Museum by the late 

 Philip Crowley are said to have been taken by Mr. H. Cole in the Chatham Islands. 

 They are pure white, with reddish dots sparsely distributed over the egg, but more 

 closely collected at one end, where a few black dots are interspersed, and there 

 is an appearance of underlying purplish-grey spots, not very distinctly indicated. 

 Axis, 1.25 inch ; diam., 1.0. 



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