CAPE PETREL. 
close alongside. The birds returned to the nests after the eggs had been 
removed, and were found sitting on the empty nests a week after. On Jan- 
uary the 13th a chick was hatched, and young birds were still in down 
on February 5th. 
“ Before laying this bird sits close on the nest for about a month, and it 
entirely disappeared from its nesting-haunts for some ten days before the first 
eggs were laid [December 2nd]. 
“ This species is a summer visitor to the South-Orkneys. In the autumn of 
1903 it was only once seen after April 21st, on which date a flock was observed 
flying north. It was entirely absent from May till September. The first of the 
spring immigrants was seen on October 1st, but the bird was not noted again 
until the 23rd, after which date it became frequent. 
“ They were never observed flying over the land, but were to be seen on 
the wing in front of the cliffs, or sailing over the sea.” 
This bird is easily caught at sea, and on one occasion six were brought 
into the English Channel and liberated. Birds have been recorded in England 
but these may have first been brought from the usual habitat and liberated 
in English waters. 
“ It feeds upon minute crustaceans, most of which appear to be coloured 
with the bright orange pigment that is so marked a feature in those animals. 
They are freely ejected in a mucoid, orange-coloured mess when the bird is 
caught and handled.”* 
Though many specimens are available, no series are yet at hand made at the 
breeding-localities, and consequently I am unable to diagnose the races. The 
original description reads : — 
P. albo fuscoque varia. 
Amoen. acad., 4. p. , Osh. it. 76. 
Habitat ad Cap b. Spei. 
It is interesting to note that though on Captain’s Cook third voyage the 
egg of the bird was obtained on Kerguelen Island, no specimens of the egg 
were afterwards procured for over 130 years, when the Scottish Antarctic 
Expedition found it commonly breeding at the South Orkneys. 
The bird figured and described is a male, and was collected at sea off the 
Cape of Good Hope. 
* Wilson, National Antarct. Exp., p. 103, 1907. 
VOL. n. 
193 
