THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Egg. Clutch one ; pure white, minutely pitted ; axis 67-71 mm,, diameter 45-46. 
Breeding -season. The end of November and December. 
Length of Incubation. Eight weeks (Campbell). 
Mr. Campbell* records two partial albinos. 
I HAVE already pointed out in the Nov. Zool., Vol. XVII., p. 4, 1911, that 
P. hrevicaudus-\ Gould must replace P. tenuirostris Temminck, as the Australian 
birds differ from those from Japan. The Japanese birds have a distinctly 
marked whitish throat and greyish under-surface, as is noted in the original 
description given herewith of that form : — 
Un peu plus grand que le Puffin manhs (P. anglorum) d’Europe, mais a bee plus grele, brun, 
marque en dessus de noir ; queue courte, fortement arrondie ; ailes tres-longues, depassent 
celle-ci de doux pouces. Tout le plumage des parties superieures, la face, les Joues et les cotes 
du cou d’une teinte brune noiratre, couleur de suie ou terre d’ombre ; menton blanc. Tout 
le reste des parties inferieures d’un gris blanchMre lave d’un brun clair; pieds brunatres. 
Longueur totale, douze pouces. 
Dans les mers au nord du Japon et sur les cotes de la Coree. 
The inside coloration of the wing is also different, being pale ashy-grey in the 
birds from Japan, and sooty-brown in Austrahan-shot specimens. The colour 
of the bills also differs, being horn-colour in the Japanese race and dark slate 
in the Australian bird. The measurements of birds from both localities are the 
same. 
Gould’s description of this bird reads : — 
The whole of the plumage sooty-brown, the under-surface much paler than the upper ; 
bill blackish-brown, tinged with olive ; the under-mandible with a longitudinal mark of 
vinous grey ; irides brownish-black ; outer side of the tarsi and outer toe brownish-black ; 
inner side of the tarsi and two inner toes vinous grey ; webs yellowish flesh-colour, becoming 
blackish-brown towards the extremity. The figure is of the natural size. Green Island, Bass 
Strait. 
P. hrevicaudus is not recorded from the Philippines, the only species of 
Pufjinus noted from there being P. leucomelas. 
Many writers, from Matthew Flinders to the present time, have noticed the 
enormous flocks of these birds that are met with at sea round the south-eastern 
coasts of Australia. 
Mr. Edgar Christian teUs me that these birds arrive on Phillip Island 
generally between the 15th and 22nd of November, and make their burrows in 
the sand-dunes on Cape Woolamai. At first a few odd ones appear, then 
the main body come, in thousands upon thousands of birds. As they arrive 
late at night, their dark bodies, darting and running about, resemble large rats ; 
at the same time they utter their harsh cry. 
* Emu, Vol. V., p. 30, 1905. 
t Although P. hrevicaudus is generally quoted as Brandt {Ic. Ross. Av., t. 6, f. 17), no trace can be found by 
me of the publication of such name. The earliest mention I can find of it in literature is by Gould, in the Birds 
of Australia, Vol. VII., PI. 56, 1847, when he used it to displace his own P. hrevicaudus, introduced in 1844, but 
with no description. 
100 
