BIRDS. 



141 



which is beheld by every one with interest. Although often spending the whole 

 day on the wing, yet on a fine moonlight night, I have repeatedly seen these birds 

 following the wake of the vessel, with their usual graceful evolutions. I am 

 informed that the Pintado arrives in Georgia for the purpose of breeding, and 

 leaves it, at the same time with the P. glacialdides. The sealers do not know 

 any other island in the Antarctic ocean excepting Georgia, where these two birds 

 (as well as the Thalassidroma oceanica) resort to breed. 



Thalassidroma oceanica. Bonap. 



Thalassidroma oceanica, Bonap. Journ. Acad. Nat. Scien., Philadelphia, vol. iii. p. 233. 

 Procellaria oceanica, Forster. 

 Petrel echasse. Temm. 



I obtained this bird at Maldonado, near the mouth of the Plata, where it was 

 blown on shore by a gale of wind. These birds, although seeming to prefer on most 

 occasions the open ocean, and to be most active, walking with their wings 

 expanded on the crest of the waves, when the gale is heaviest, yet sometimes visit 

 quiet harbours, in considerable numbers. At Bahia Blanca I saw many, when 

 there was nothing in the weather to explain their appearance. I was informed 

 by a sealer, that they build in holes on the sea cliffs of Georgia, where they arrive 

 very regularly in the month of September. No other place is known to be 

 frequented by them for the purpose of breeding. 



Prion vittatus. Cuv. 



Procellaria Vittata, Gnielin. Syst. i. 560. 



I did not procure a specimen of this bird, although I saw numbers on both 

 sides of the Continent from about lat. 35° S. to Cape Horn. It is a wild solitary 

 bird, appears always to be on the wing : flight extremely rapid. Mr. Stokes 

 (Assistant surveyor of the Beagle) informs me that they build in great numbers on 

 Landfall Island, on the west coast of Tierra del Fuego. Their burrows are about 

 a yard deep : they are excavated on the hill-sides, at a distance even of 

 half a mile from the sea shore. If a person stamps on the ground over their 

 nests, many fly out of the same hole. Mr. Stokes says the eggs are white, 

 elongated, and of the size of those of a pigeon. 



1. Larus fuliginosus. Gould. 



L. Mas. corpore toto obscurh plumbeo-griseo, tegminibus caudce superioribus inferiori- 



busque pallidioribus ; rostro bast rubro, apice nigro ; pedibus nigris. 

 Long. tot. 16'J unc. ; alee, 13^ : caudce, 6 ; tarsi, 2| ; rostri 2f . 



