Order PR0CELLARIIF0RME8 
No. 78. 
Family HYDROBATID^. 
PELAGODROMA MARINA HOWEI. 
EAST AUSTRALIAN WHITE-FACED STORM-PETREL. 
Pelagodeoma MARINA HOWEI, subsp. H. ; East Australia ; Type no. 8100 in my collection. 
Pelagodroma nuirina Yowmend, Viet. Naturalist, Vol. XIX., p. 166, 1903; Campbell and 
Mattingley, Emu, Vol. VI., pp. 185, 192, 1907 ; Littler, Handb. Birds Tasm., p. 160, 
1910 ; Hull, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1909, Vol. XXXIV., p. 689, 1910 ; id., ib., 
Vol. XXXV., p. 687, 1910; id., Emu, Vol. X., p. 253, 1911 ; id., ib., Vol. XL, 
p. 100 et seq., p. 203 et seq., 1912 
Distribution. East Australian seas. 
Advlt maU. Differs from P. m. dulcice in its darker grey mantle and upper-back ; the 
three Australasian forms seem to agree in having the grey on the sides of the neck 
extending on to the breast much more than in the Atlantic forms. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature birds with some down still adhering. Differ from the adult female in being paler 
on the upper-surface and having the primary- and secondary-quills slate-grey, 
conspicuously margined with white. 
Nest. An underground burrow, from a foot to three feet in length. 
Eggs. Clutch one. Of two eggs collected by Mr. Frank E. Howe on Mud Island, Victoria, 
on December 14th, one is pure white, the other white with an indistinct band of 
reddish-brown spots round the larger end. Axis 34-36 mm., diameter 21-22. 
Breeding-season. October to January. 
Mr. Frank E. Howe, of Melbourne, to whom I am indebted for a series of 
skins and eggs of this species, sends me the following notes : “I visited Mud 
Island, Port Phillip Bay, on December 1 4th, 1907 ; nearly all the birds were 
sitting on heavily-incubated eggs, and two or three had young about a day old. 
Only a very few eggs were fresh. The day-old birds were covered with 
slate-blue down ; bill and feet black. From the time I saw these young till I 
again visited the Island ten weeks had elapsed, and I considered the young 
would not be able to leave the burrows for two more weeks. When handled, 
the birds exuded from their bills a liquid not unlike anchovy paste, but having 
a bronze appearance and a nauseating smell.” 
Mr. E. J. Christian says : “ They come to their nests after dark in rather 
a cautious way. When the young are hatched, the parents go to sea and return 
to feed them once only in the twenty-four hours.” 
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