THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
orange-pink in colour, smooth and fleshy, and of a suitable muscular character 
to assist in expelling the fluid from a mouthful of minute crustaceans and the 
water in which they were taken up. 
“ The flight of the Prion petrels is wonderfully strong and untiring for such 
small birds. They are apparently always on the wing, and one rarely sees them 
resting on the water ; their flight is always very rapid, with quick changes which 
show alternately the wholly white underparts and underwings, and the blue- 
grey backs with the darker V-shaped mark, which characterises this and allied 
forms of petrel.” 
The bird described is a male, which was picked up dead on Bondi Beach, 
Sydney, on the 1 0th of July, 1904, and is undoubtedly referable to the New 
Zealand breeding form. 
In Forster’s Voyage Round the World, Vol. I., 1777, p. 91, is the flrst note 
of the “ Blue Petrel, so called from its having a bluish-grey colour, and a 
band of blackish feathers across the whole wing.” On p. 98 Forster named the 
Blue Petrel Procellaria vittata, but the name cannot be accepted as of this 
introduction, as it is indeterminable. 
In Captain Cook’s account of the same voyage (p. 12, 1777), under date 
October 16th, 1772, we read : “ And were now accompanied by albatrosses, 
pintadoes, sheerwaters, etc., and small grey petrel, less than a pigeon. It has 
a whitish belly, and grey back, with a black stroke across from the tip of one 
wing to the tip of the other. These birds sometimes visited us in great flights. 
They are, as well as the pintadoes, southern birds ; and are, I believe, never 
seen within the tropics, or North of the Line.” On p. 29, Dec. 23rd, 1772; 
“ Mr. Forster, who went in the boat, shot some of the small grey birds before 
mentioned, which were of the petrel tribe, and about the size of a small pigeon. 
Their back, and upper side of their wings, their feet and biUs, are of a blue-grey 
colour. Their bellies, and under side of their wings, are white, a little tinged 
with blue. The upper side of their quill feathers is a dark blue tinged with black. 
A streak is formed by feathers nearly of this colour, along the upper parts of 
the wings, and crossing the back a little above the tail. The end of the tail feathers 
is also of the same colour. Their bills are much broader than any I have seen 
of the same tribe, and their tongues are remarkably broad. These blue petrels, 
as I shall call them, are seen nowhere but in the southern hemisphere, from about 
the latitude of 28° and upwards.” On p. 32, December 27, 1772 : “ Some of 
the petrels [shot by Mr. Forster] were of the blue sort, but diflering from those 
before mentioned, in not having a broad bill ; and the ends of their tail feathers 
were tipped with white instead of dark blue. But whether these were only the 
distinction betwixt the male and female was a matter disputed by our naturalists.” 
In connection with Captain Cook’s statement regarding their broad bills, may be 
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