SHORT-TAILED PETREL. 
From the authors quoted in the synonymy, I gather that these birds con- 
gregate in immense flocks about September. At night they go to the islands 
where their rookeries are situated. They spend about ten days preparing their 
burrows, and then go to sea for about five weeks and apparently pair. About 
the 20th of November, at sunset, a few come back to the rookeries and lay, 
and during the evenings of the next few days the main portion have returned. 
As is to be expected when countless thousands of birds return to a limited area, 
confusion seems to reign, birds darting about everywhere, uttering their harsh 
cries, others fighting, others again contented in their burrows. Many birds are 
forced to lay their eggs under bushes. The birds are out at sea all day, and only 
return to land at dusk. 
Early in the morning they leave for the sea. As they cannot rise from the 
ground, they have regular “ taking off ” places, which are well-trodden tracks 
up the cliff. When the bird reaches the top it simply drops over, if it is calm 
or the wind is blowing from the sea. If the wind is from the land, the birds take 
a sharp run against it, flapping their wings till they feel themselves off the 
ground. A great many birds do not sleep in the burrows, but out in the open ; 
and they do not put their head under their wing. Both birds are usually 
in the burrow at night, but seem to take turns at incubating the egg during 
the day. 
The young are able to fly by the end of April or early in May. Ten days 
before this the parents have left them, and gone to sea till the next season. 
Mr. A. J. Campbell says, before the young go to sea they swallow a quantity 
of sand or gravel. It is just before they can fly that the young bird is sought 
after and cured. When properly cooked they are said to be good-eating. 
Sometimes the bird is driven far inland, and Mr. Frank S. Smith tells me 
one was shot about thirty miles from the sea. 
Mr. J. W. MeUor says these birds sit very tight, and are removed from the 
egg with difficulty, and the hen bird is fed by the male while laying operations 
are going on. The male goes to sea all day, and when he returns feeds his 
mate with a greenish substance like pulverised sea-weed. This appears to be 
partly digested in the male’s crop first. They are very plentiful on all the 
islands of South Australia and Victoria, where they breed in November and 
December. Sometimes the burrow is five feet long. At nightfall the returning 
birds blacken the sky, and as each male returns to its sitting mate, th^ cooing 
and gurgling sound is started, which increases as the night advances into a perfect 
pandemonium, and decreases as early morning draws near and the time for the 
male bird to depart for the open sea. 
Mr. T. H. Tregellas writes me regarding P. t. hrevicaudus, which he observed 
on Phillip Isle, Bass Strait, in March : 
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