ALLIED PETREL. 
Nest. “ The egg is laid in a recess or shallow hole under an overhanging rock . . . there 
is no nest ” (Crowfoot, Norfolk Island). “ The bird digs out burrows for its nest 
often of considerable length ” (Oheeseman, Kermadecs). 
Egg. Clutch one, pure white, “ long and narrow, and more or less pointed at both ends, 
2.1 inches in length by 1.3 in breadth ” (Crowfoot, Norfolk Island) ; “ 2.04 by 
1.38 : 1.94 by 1.4 ” (Hull, Norfolk Island) ; “ Average 2.11 in. in length, by 1.4 in 
breadth ” (Cheeseman, Kermadecs). 
Breeding -season. July and August, Norfolk Island (Hull) ; July onwards Kermadecs, 
(Iredale). 
Mr. Hull* notes : “ The Allied Petrel breeds on Phillip and Nepean Islands, 
and on the rocky islets on the northern side of Norfolk Island, during the months 
of July and August. On the 28th October, 1908, I visited the Redstone, one 
of the latter islets, and found the shallow nesting-holes of this Petrel deserted, 
although one recently dead young bird was lying in a hole. No doubt this was 
a late-hatched bird, abandoned by its parents at the time of the general 
migration.” 
Mr. Tom Iredale tells me this bird arrives on the Kermadecs about the 
beginning of May. The burrows were about two feet in length, and no nest 
was formed at the end. On August 3rd were found— in some cases— fresh 
eggs and young, but in the majority of burrows were hard-set eggs. On 
November 1 1th fully-grown young birds were collected. These birds are 
very gentle and can be handled with impunity. They come to earth with a 
thud, and the sound made by them after sunset when they return home is quite 
remarkable. Their note is a short guttural sound, followed by a most peculiar 
noise which can only be compared with a deep, hoarse indrawing of the breath. 
It is a similar sound to that which completes the long cry of Puffinus paciflcus 
pacificus, but is louder and much more pronounced. 
In the Nov. Zool., Vol. VI., Rothschild and Hartert, having occasion to 
name one of the forms of Petrel, commonly called Puffinus obscurus, found it 
necessary to review the group. I accepted their conclusions until quite recently, 
when the discovery of the missing Solander MSS., and the recognition that 
Procellaria gavia Forster related to one of this group instead of to the bird 
commonly called Puffinus gavia, made it necessary for me to go very carefully 
into the matter. Through the kindness of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, and the 
courtesy of Messrs. Eagle Clarke and Bonhote and Dr. Lowe, I have been 
enabled to get together quite a representative series of these birds, an4 as the 
literature is very extensive I have here included the original descriptions of 
aU the forms which seem to be concerned in studying these difficult little birds. 
I propose to give a history of the names applied, and then the results of my 
investigations, with a summary of the facts as I understand them. I might 
* Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. XXXIV., 1910, p. 647. 
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