114 
like the Petrels, they seldom quit, except at the breeding season, 
when they congregate in vast multitudes on small islands suited to 
the purpose. Great nurseries of this kind are to be found in every 
ocean ; in the North Atlantic, one of the Tortugas, called Noddy 
Key, is a favourite resort, and the Bahama Islands are another ; in 
the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, beside other situations, the 
Houtmann’s Abrolhos, off the western coast of Australia, are resorted 
to in such immense numbers that Mr. Gilbert was perfectly astonished 
at the multitudes with which he found himself surrounded, upon 
landing on those remote and little explored islands. 
573. Anoiis stolidus Yol. VII. PI. 34. 
“ The large Noddy,” says Mr. M e Gillivray, “ is abundantly distri- 
buted over Torres’ Straits, but I never met with it to the southward 
of Raine’s Islet, on which, as at Bramble Key, it was found breeding 
in prodigious numbers. Unlike its constant associate, the Sooty Tern, 
it constructs a shallow nest of small twigs arranged in a slovenly 
manner, over which are strewed about a handful of fragments of 
coral from the beach, shells, and occasionally portions of tortoise- 
shell and bones of turtle. The nest, sometimes placed upon the 
ground, but more usually upon tufts of grass and other herbage, at 
about a foot from the ground.” 
574. A nous melanops, Gould Yol. VII. PI. 35. 
575. Anoiis leucoeapillus, Gould Yol. VII. PI. 36. 
576. Anoiis cinereus, Goidd Yol. VII. PI. 37. 
Family PROCELLARIDAE. 
There is perhaps no group of birds respecting which so much 
confusion exists, and the extent of whose range over the ocean is so 
little known, as that forming the present family. 
Having, as I have before stated, paid much attention to these 
birds during my voyages to and from Australia and in its neighbour- 
hood, my researches were rewarded by my obtaining a knowledge of 
at least forty different species, nearly all of which are peculiar to the 
seas of the southern hemisphere. The powers of flight with w hich 
these birds are endowed are perfectly astonishing, and they appear 
to be constantly performing migrations round the globe from west to 
east ; and Australia lying in their tract, all the species may be 
found near its shores at one or other season of the year. 
It is but natural to suppose that this great group of birds has 
been created for some especial purpose, and may we not infer that 
they have been placed in the Southern Ocean to prevent an undue 
increase of the myriads of mollusks and other low marine animals 
with which those seas abound, and upon which all the Procellaridce 
mainly subsist? 
Genus Diomedea. 
Of this genus, which comprises among its members the largest of 
the Oceanic birds, three species range over the North Pacific Ocean ; 
and six others fly to the southward of the equator. 
