WHITE-FACED STORM-PETREL 
faced Storm-petrel. With some ceremony it was 
taken down to the end of the pier and there released, 
flying off uncertainly enough, but let us hope to an 
ultimate meeting with its friends. For there exists 
to this day, within thirty miles of Geelong, inside 
the Heads, a thriving colony of these Petrels. Till a 
few years ago boys from fishing-boats used to pelt 
each other with the eggs (white they are, like Pigeons' 
eggs), and it was after seeing one or two which had 
been saved from such heartless sport and brought 
to Queenscliff, that I determined to visit Mud Island 
in the spring of 1901. 
The man who sailed me over told me that basketsful 
of the eggs had been taken during the week preceding 
my visit on November 17th. It took me some time 
to find the rookery : at last a dead bird lying on some 
pig's-face weed showed the spot, and presently I 
had discovered some hundreds of shallow burrows 
in the ground. These were from i to 4 feet long, 
and at the end of several I examined there sat the 
little Petrel close on her single egg. I took one 
bird out and threw it gently into the air. Poor little 
thing, it seemed frightened by the glare of sunlight, 
and floated feebly to the ground, there to crawl 
under the nearest shelter. The sexes appear to share 
the incubation, one staying at home and the other 
out at sea till dusk, when places are changed and the 
lonely islet becomes a scene of great animation. 
Shortly after my visit, in consequence of repre- 
sentations made to the authorities, Mud Island was 
