AUSTEALIAN DOVE-PRION. 
the soil where it meets the rock. As the soil, especially at these parts, is loose 
and friable, the hurricanes that at times come raging over this exposed islet 
tear away the edges of the rookery and destroy these unfortunate birds. 
Evidences of the destructive work of wind and water were plainly visible. All 
along the extreme edge of the rookery were burrows of the Dovelike Prions, 
from which the covering of soil had been swept away by the wind, while in the 
nesting cavity at the extremity many broken and a few unbroken eggs were 
found, one egg comprising a clutch, whilst some of the adult birds had been 
blocked in their burrows and had been smothered. Most of the burrows of 
these birds had a turn in them, instead of being excavated straight into the soil. 
This turn was no doubt made by the birds mainly to prevent the complete 
choking up of their burrows by particles of wind driven soil, but in some cases 
the turn in the tunnelling was due to a hard piece of rock intruding and barring 
the way, rendering it necessary to turn off in another direction. The burrows 
measured in depth about two feet, and only about eight or nine of them at 
the rookery were tenanted by either young ones or adults. Both the cock 
and hen Prion take their share of the burden in hatching out the young. They 
often stay at home with their nestling during the day-time ... At about 
9 o’clock p.m. ... a couple of Snowbirds or Prions flew quietly in, and after 
flying up and down the rookery to take up the bearings of their nest, they 
flickered over their burrows like large butterflies, and descended to their young 
ones beneath, after having cleared away the loose material that had been blown 
into the mouth of the burrow, with a few vigorous backward kicks of their 
webbed feet. A faint ‘ coo-coo-coo ’ of welcome made by the adult bird could 
be heard, as it invited its offspring to open its mouth whilst it regurgitated the 
contents of its stomach, consisting of a thick greenish, oily paste, and ejected it 
into the open gape of its progeny. The young of the Dove Petrels, or Prions, 
like most of the Petrel family, resemble a ball of slaty-grey fluffy down, in their 
earliest immature state. They have a pair of little beady black eyes, which peep 
out of the down from just behind a slender black beak, which is surmounted 
by the tube nostrils peculiar to the Petrel family . . . Just before dawn I 
noticed the Petrels leave the rock and fly seawards. The Prions seemed to 
have no difficulty in rising off their rookery.”* 
The type described above was collected on Torquay Beach, Geelong, 
Victoria, in October, 1911, by my friend Mr. Charles Belcher, who gavb me the 
specimen. 
It appears almost impossible to separate the synonymy of this bird from 
that of Pseudo'prion turtur. 
* Mattingley, Fici. Va^., Vol. XXV., p. 12, 1908. Prion desolatus ; Lawrence Rocks, Portland, Victoria ; 
Xmas, 1907. 
227 
