SHORT-BILLiED PRION 49 
SHORT-BILLED PRION 
Pseudoprion turtur 
The Prions are a group of beautiful dove-like small 
Petrels, bluish grey above and white below, which 
are commonly classed by fishermen with several other 
kinds of Petrel as " 'Coutta-birds," following as they 
do the great shoals of barracoutta which visit our 
shores in autumn, and feeding on such minute Crus- 
tacea as the greedy fish may eject from his capacious 
maw. Unless one can arrange to go out with the 
fishermen, it is not often that one sees a Prion alive. 
They keep, as a rule, well out from shore. The first 
I ever saw was skimming along in the trough between 
huge ocean rollers near the mouth of Bream Creek, 
and never since have I noted a live bird so close to the 
beach. 
There are four species, indistinguishable from each 
other when flying about and only to be identified 
after close examination of the bill, where the points 
of difference arise. All of them suffer from the 
fury of the westerly gales which rage through the 
Straits from May to October (and the rest of the 
year as well, some travellers would say). After a 
heavy tempest in June, 191 1, I found the remains of 
twenty birds, among them two of this species, on the 
beach at Torquay. They had, doubtless, battled 
against the inshore wind till, unable any longer to 
keep out to sea and safety, they fell exhausted on the 
sand and were literally beaten to death by the surges. 
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