THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Speaking of what I believe to be this bird’s nesting habitat, Wilson^ writes: 
“ On January 9th we made a landing on Cape Adare, and had some hours 
which we occupied in hunting for this and other birds’ nests. It was presumably 
late for nests, but we were lucky in at last locating one. The birds were to 
be seen hovering round the mouth of crevices in the rocky side of the cliff, 
often settling close by for a few seconds, and then sailing in short circles round 
it, reminding one strongly of the movements of a House Martin {Chelidon 
urbica) at its nest under the eaves of a country barn. 
“ Two of the crevices could not be reached, but soon we saw a bird hover 
round and settle upon a large boulder. Hunting about for a burrow underneath, 
we caught the sound of twittering and traced it to a kind of mouse-hole. This, 
by dint of long and tedious picking with a sheath-knife, we enlarged till it 
admitted an arm up to the shoulder. The work w^as laborious, as the floor of the 
burrow was hard black ice and grit, but eventually we reached the nest. At 
the end of a little tunnel was a chamber containing a very comfortable nest, 
thickly lined with Adelie Penguins’ feathers, and in it a somewhat remarkable 
collection. First we brought out an adult male alive, then an adult female ; 
then two eggs, one clean and newly laid, the other old and rotten, and under 
all, another dead and flattened adult Oceanites. Outside, as we worked, a fourth 
bird was hovering, which, when shot, proved to be an adult male. It has been 
long known that with this species the nesting burrow is often used by more 
than a single pair. The fresh egg was preserved, the rotten one fell to pieces, 
and the three birds were preserved. 
“ Not a day now passed in our summer cruising on which we did not see 
a few Wilson’s Petrels. Never in large numbers, they were, nevertheless, 
never absent, and it was not until February 7th that we saw the last, in 1902. 
“ At the approach of winter, they disappear from the southernmost regions 
and no doubt migrate north. Though the ice of Ross Sea was many times 
broken up by storms during winter and early spring, the little Wilson’s Petrel 
was not to be seen in McMurdo Sound from the end of February to the middle 
of December. On December and in January of 1903 to 1904, while we were 
camped on the sea ice under Dellbridge Islands, we saw quite a number of them, 
but though the rough volcanic rocks and boulders were apparently much 
frequented, we found no nest there. Nor could we find them nesting at Cape 
Royds, which seemed more suitable, being some miles nearer the open water and 
their food supply. 
“ The burrows are not very difficult to discover, for one’s attention is drawn 
to them by the habit the bird has of hovering round the entrance in the evening 
hours, and settling there without actually going in and also sometimes by the 
* National Antarct. Exp., Avee, p. 76, 1907. 
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