GIANT PETREL 
47 
I was, nearly all the way from Cook's Strait to Val- 
paraiso. In the latter port they were plentiful, 
picking up a living with the Silver-grey Petrels from 
sewer refuse. An unpleasant habit with which they 
are credited is that of pursuing smaller seabirds and 
breaking in their skulls with a blow of the strong beak 
(whence the name " Ossifrage "). 
They are known to breed on Kerguelen Island, also 
in Patagonia, and are found practically all round the 
world south of the thirtieth parallel. From what 
breeding-centre the Portarlington bird may have 
come is hard to say, seeing that Quoy and Gaimard 
saw individual birds of this species flying for days 
together without a break, in latitude 59°, at a time 
when continuous daylight made it possible to watch 
them. On the voyage above mentioned, I saw an 
albino of this species, with just a few dark flecks 
on its dead-white plumage. Cook's sailors christened 
these birds " Mother Carey's Geese." 
CAPE PIGEON 
Petrella capensis australis 
Of course the name " Pigeon " is a misnomer ; the 
bird is a true Petrel, the most strikingly coloured and 
best known of all the smaller seabirds to those whose 
life lies on the deep waters. But so long has it been 
called " Cape Pigeon " that I do not care to change 
the name for the more correct " Spotted Petrel." 
Like so many other Antarctic Petrels, it is distributed 
