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, Gmelin. 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 tbat 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 obscure plumbeo-griseo, tegminibus caudce superioribus inferiori- 
busque pallidioribus ; rostro basi rubro, apice nigro ; pedibus nigris. 
Long. tot. 16 1 unc. ; alee , 13| : caudce , 6 ; tarsi , 2-i ; rostri 2§ . 
