Birds of Kerguelen Island . 29 
In Royal Sound I saw this species only twice, and then 
because a strong wind seemed to bring in many Petrels of 
several kinds. 
Prion desolatus (Gm.); Salvin, Cat. B. xxv. p. 484. 
Most naturalists and whalers speak of the Prions as 
“ Whale-birds," but if the countless numbers of this dove- 
like species round Kerguelen had to subsist on whale's 
droppings they would starve. I have seen them at 7 p.m. 
pass into Royal Sound in a glistening white line miles long. 
I watched them on January 7th from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m. tra¬ 
velling like a line of innumerable snow-flakes in a westerly 
direction for their island home. It was an extraordinary 
sight while the sun poured its light upon the current of 
feathered life. Other Petrels were doubtless there, but the 
a under-whites" predominated. When the line started I 
could not say, but it ceased at 7.30 to be seen without 
the sun's direct light, and I did not again encounter a 
view. Early on the morning of December 26th, some 
60 miles east of Cape Digby, we saw thousands on the 
glassy sea after the storm of the previous day. They rise 
from the ocean much like a flock of Starlings, but while the 
latter are conspicuous black objects, the former are silvery 
white. 
I found that both sexes take part in incubation in the day¬ 
time in the tunnels beneath the ground. As many as three 
birds to one egg were seen in one hollow. Of thirteen 
examined, I found three were males and ten females, and all 
were taken off the eggs in the daytime. Two females struck 
against the ship's light one night, so probably the males 
were then sitting. From these notes I concluded that the 
females sit principally in the daytime. Although the nests 
are usually placed beneath the ground, I found one in a hole 
in a solid rock at an altitude of, at least, 300 feet above sea- 
level. By some means it was bored horizontally, and at the 
further end it was occupied by a sitting Prion, quite observable 
from without. Abundant evidence along the floor showed 
former occupation by rabbits (January 24th). The bowl of 
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