Island. The first egg was found on the 31st of October, Their 
burrows are about as small in diameter as the holes* of Hank 
Martins (Cotyle rvparia) or Kingfishers (Alcedo input a ). They 
are made in dry banks and slopes where the ground is easily pene- 
trable, and terminate in a large chamber on whose floor the egg 
' . ° . oo 
is deposited. There is no specially constructed nest. Some of 
the burrows are branched, but the branches are without terminal 
enlargements, and do not appear to be put to any use by the birds. 
Before the egg is laid, both of the parents may be found in the 
nest-chamber, and may often be heard moaning in the day-time ; 
blit when the females begin to sit, their call is seldom heard, ex 
cepting at night, when the male in his flight to and from the hole, 
and his mate on the nest make a considerable noise.” 
Mr. Ho ward Saunders,* who described the eggs of this species 
obtained there amongst those of other birds frequenting the 
Australian Coast, writes: — “Ten eggs. are all pure white, except 
where peat-stained, nearly equal at each end, or but very slightly 
pointed. Dimensions 1*5 x 1 ‘1 inch,” 
Sir Walter Laurie Bullerf in his Birds of New Zealand, records 
that “ Mr. Burton found this Petrel breeding on Stephens island 
in Cook’s Strait. It also breeds on Karewa island (off Tauranga) 
on the small islands of the (treat Barrier, and on the Men and 
Chickens.” 
in Australian waters this bird is most frequently found between 
Victoria and Tasmania, likewise in the seas washing the shores of 
South Australia and New South Wales, but in neither of the 
latter localities is it so plentiful as in Bass’s Straits and the 
Tasmanian waters. The eggs of this species have been known to 
Australian oologists for some years past from numerous specimens 
taken on the smaller islands of Bass’s Straits, they show no differ- 
ence either in size and shape from those previously described by 
various authors. They are rounded ovals in form, some specimens 
being slightly pointed at the smaller end, others being nearly 
equal in size at each end, pure white when newly laid, but like 
those of other members of the Procell arid <r\ soon becoming more 
or less stained and soiled as they approach the time of hatching. 
Average specimens measure as follows : (A) 1*48 \ 1 * 2 3 inch ; 
(B) 1 ■(> x 1*2 inch ; (C) 1*53 x 1*2 inch. 
These birds were recently found breeding on North-East Island 
by the members of a party from the Field Naturalist’s Club of 
Victoria, who paid a visit to the Kent Group in Bass’s Straits, 
during November 1890 ; they were too late however to obtain 
any eggs the burrows at that time containing only young birds 
nearly fledged. 
* Howard Saunders, Account of the collections made in Kerguelen’s 
Land and Rodriguez during the Transit of Venus Expeditions in the 
year 1874-5, p. 174, (1870). 
f Duller, birds of New Zealand, Vol. ii., Second edition, p. 207, (1888), 
