MONOGRAPH OF THE PETRELS. 



This Fulmar was not known to Buller when he wrote his first edition of the 

 " Birds of New Zealand," but after its publication several examples were received 

 by him from the Hauraki Gulf and other localities, though not from the South 

 Island. The following notes on the habits of CE. coohi are taken from the second 

 edition. The dark wings, contrasting with the light plumage of the body, enable 

 these birds to be easily distinguished in flight from all other Petrels ; they fly low, 

 sometimes skimming the water with slanting wings, at others touching it with 

 their feet and resting to pick up some small object before again taking wing. 

 Reischek met with it at the northern extremity of the island, on the Little Barrier 

 and Larger Chicken Reefs, but states that it was rare, as during several months' 

 sojourn he only obtained about a dozen specimens. Some of these he opened, 

 and found that their stomachs contained nothing but small seeds and sea-weed, 

 the oily matter so common in other Petrels being absent. 



CE. cooki deposits a single egg at the end of a long and tortuous burrow, usually 

 in sloping ground. The burrow invariably terminates in two chambers, opposite each 

 other, one occupied by the bird, the other by a Tuatara Lizard (Sphenodon), which 

 has long since disappeared from the mainland. Mr. Reischek says that the lizard 

 guards the burrow, actively defending both the Petrel and the egg ; it attacked and 

 fiercely bit his hand when he attempted to interfere with them, so much so, that he 

 found it necessary to remove the lizard before handling the egg or young. This 

 observation is also confirmed by Captain Mair's experience on Karewa Island, in the 

 Bay of Plenty. The breeding season commences early in October, and the eggs are 

 laid in the beginning of November ; they are white and smooth, but not glossy, and 

 measure 1.9 inch in length by 1.5 in breadth. 



Adult (type of species). General colour above slaty-grey, with indistinct 

 margins of lighter grey, scarcely visible ; longer scapulars black, like the inner 

 secondaries ; on the centre of the rump a patch of black feathers, margined with grey ; 

 upper tail-coverts ashy-grey, with lighter grey margins ; tail-feathers ashy-brown, 

 slightly blackish towards the ends, and with concealed white bases, the two outermost 

 white, ashy-brown along the outer web, which is slightly freckled towards the end, 

 the third rectrix freckled with ashy-brown and white on both webs, with tAvo-thirds of 

 the outer web ashy-brown ; wing-coverts black, the greater series slightly shaded with 

 ashy ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, the latter white on their inner 

 webs ; crown of head like the back, the forehead and lores white, as also the sides of 

 the face, mottled with small spots of black on the hinder forehead, below the eye, and 

 on the ear-coverts ; above the eye a narrow streak of white ; eyelid and feathers in 

 front of the eye black, extending below the eye on to the ear-coverts ; cheeks and 

 under-surface of body pure white, the sides of the neck ashy-grey, like the back, 

 extending down on the sides, and breaking up into grey bars on the latter ; the flanks 

 with hair-like shaft-lines ; axillaries and under wing-coverts pure white, with a 



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