THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
inner ones, with black shafts ; inner primaries blue-grey like the back ; secondaries 
mostly white with grey on the outer webs, innermost secondaries like the back ; 
the long scapulars tipped with white ; tail blue-grey broadly tipped with white, more 
narrowly on the outer feathers, the outermost pair are white, dusted with grey at the 
tips ; crown of head and feathers surrounding the eyes blackish, more or less mixed 
with white on the latter ; forehead variegated with brown and white, imparting 
a scalloped appearance ; lores, chin, sides and upper neck as also the under surface 
of body white, including the axillaries and under wing-coverts ; sides of lower-neck 
blue-grey like the back ; “ Bill bluish-black, the latericorn of the maxilla distinctly 
bluish. Legs and toes pale cobalt blue ; webs pink in the centre, grey borders 
at the free edges.” (Wilson.) Total length 275 mm. ; culmen .25, wing 209, tail 85, 
tarsus 29. 
Adult female. Very similar to the adult male, but the upper surface not so dark. 
“ The newly -hatched young have bill and toes slaty-blue, with apparently 
pale-yellowish webs and brownish-black claws. The horny speck upon the biU is 
whitish, and situated high above the tip of the bill. The region about the base of the 
bill is largely denuded. They begin to hatch. out about November 12th.” (Kidder.) 
Nest. “A burrow (excavated beneath the mounds of the umbelliferous plant Azorella 
selago) running straight inwards for a foot or more, then turning sharply to the right 
or left, parallel with the hill-side, thence downwards, often doubling once or twice 
upon themselves, and communicating with other entrances. At the bottom is an 
enlarged cavity, lined with fine root-fibres, twigs, ferns, or leaves of the ‘ Kerguelen 
tea,’ and quite dry.” (Kidder.) 
Egg. Clutch, one ; white and glossless ; axis 44 mm., diameter 32. 
Breeding-season. October and November (Kidder). 
Kidder,* writing from Kerguelen, says : “ Upon first landing (September 13th) 
the hiU-sides, apparently quite deserted during the day, became at night per- 
fectly alive with these birds and a species of Pelecanoides flying irregularly 
about the rocks and hummocks of Azorella and filling the air with their call. 
The note much resembled the cooing of pigeons, consisting of three short 
notes repeated in rapid succession and followed by two long ones, thus 
‘ Kuk-Kuk-Kuk coo-coo.’ 
“ They seemed rarely to fly over the water, but to confine themselves to the 
neighbourhood of their burrows, sometimes alighting and again taking wing, — 
very much as if there were legions of bats inhabiting the hill. I never succeed 
in satisfying myself as to the object of this constant flight during the night, 
although I spent much time in watching them, since, so far as my observation 
extended, there were no night-flying insects whatever upon the island, nor did 
the structure of the stomachs of these birds seem fitted to an insect diet. 
“ Upon our first arrival, two birds, male and female, were usually found in 
each burrow during the day. After they began to lay, however, but a single 
one was to be found with the egg, usually, but not always, the female. 
“ When set free in the day-time, the mode of flight was irregular, as if 
the light were confusing to the bird. They always alighted in the water after 
* Bull, U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 2, p. 35, 1876. 
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