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Sea-Gull. On picking them up and placing them in the pocket of my overcoat, they have soon 
revived, and in some instances have lived for several days on a diet of fresh meat, minced into small 
pieces. From the increased activity they always manifested on the approach of night, seeking the 
darker corners of the room and fluttering about in a very excited manner, with a rapid twittering 
note, I conclude that, whether at sea or on land, this Petrel is more nocturnal than diurnal in its 
habits. During the day the eyes were always half closed, imparting a peculiar fretful expression to 
the face. One circumstance interested me much, as illustrating the force of habit. On taking up 
one of these birds and inserting its bill in a glass of water, it at once commenced to move its feet, as 
if in the act of swimming or treading the waves. I repeated the experiment many times, and always 
with the same result. 
This Petrel, like many of the others, feeds on squids and other small jelly-flsh, which contribute 
likewise to the support of our great cetaceans. The presence of large flocks at sea is regarded by 
whalers as a favourable sign on this account, and among sailors the Dove Petrel is generally known 
as the “ Whale bird.” 
In rising from a plane surface I observed that they always accomplished it by running a few feet 
with the wings outstretched, so as to give the body an impetus forward ; and they seemed never to 
tire of climbing over the armchairs or other inclined surfaces in the room, using both wings and feet 
in this operation. At sea they are very active on the wing, and are rarely seen to rest on the water ; 
they hover over the rolling billows, and dance, fairy-like, in the trough of the sea, sometimes poising 
their bodies like butterflies over a flower, at others cutting the air with the swiftness of a meteor, and 
alw-ays apparently intent on the one object of seeking the small marine animals on which they feed. 
In the winter of 1878 I had occasion to visit the Wellington west coast, after a north-west 
gale had been blowing for several days, and I found that large numbers of Prion had been killed by 
the fury of the tempest and their bodies washed ashore on the beach. In travelling by coach from 
Waikanae to Otaki, a distance of only ten miles, I counted no less than twenty-seven lying on the 
strand, and there were probably many more. As I performed the rest of the journey to Manawatu in 
a buggy, I was able to stop and pick up specimens. In this way I was fortunate enough to obtain, 
during one day, twenty fresh birds. Of these, twelve were referable without hesitation to Prion turtur 
and eight to P. lanlcsii. The difference in the size and form of the bill was constant, and among 
individuals of each species there was only a slight variation. 
Reischek found this Petrel breeding in holes underground, on both the Little Barrier and the 
Ohickens ; but it was very scarce, and met with only on the highest wooded ridges in the centre of 
the island. lie found a fresh egg on the 1st November, and met with young birds (one in each nest) 
in the beginning of December, and reports that during the breeding-season this Petrel hovers about 
after dusk, making a noise like the cackling of a Bantam-hen after laying her egg, but not quite 
so loud. 
Of the egg of this species I have received specimens from the Island of Kapiti, in Cook’s Strait, 
where also Mr. Percy Seymour obtained fresh ones on the 20th October. The egg is of a regular 
ovoid form, measuring 1'8 inch in length by I‘5 in breadth; it is creamy white, and generally much 
soiled over the entire surface. Examples vary slightly in form and size, one of the specimens in my 
son’s collection measuring P8 inch by 1’2, and another 1’7 inch by 1‘3. 
