Page:Cassell's book of birds (IA cassellsbookofbi04breh).pdf/237

 intermediate between the Albatross and the Storm Petrels. In this bird the plumage is deep chocolate-brown. The eye is blackish brown; beak horn-grey, with red tip. The young bird is more lightly coloured, and has a silvery white eye. The length of this species is about two feet eight inches, and the spread of the wings from four feet and a half to five feet.

The habitat of the Giant Petrel extends over the temperate and antarctic zones of the southern hemisphere.

Captain Hutton tells us that "this bird breeds in the cliffs of Prince Edward's Island and Kerguelen's Land, but the nests can be got at occasionally. The young are at first covered with a beautiful, long, light grey down; when fledged they are dark brown, mottled with white. When a person approaches the nest, the old birds keep a short distance away, while the young ones squirt a horribly-smelling oil out of their mouths to the distance of six or eight feet. It is very voracious, hovering over the sealers when engaged cutting up a seal, and devouring the carcase the moment it is left, which the Albatross never does. It sometimes chases the smaller species, but whether or not it can catch birds possessed apparently of powers of flight superior to its own is doubtful; but supposing one is killed, that it feeds only upon its heart and liver, I can never believe, yet it is said to do so in the works of many ornithologists."

THE FULMAR PETREL.

(Procellaria glacialis).

The (Procellaria glacialis) is principally white, light silvery grey upon the under side, and blueish grey upon the mantle. The primary quills are black, the eye is brown, the beak along the culmen pale horn-yellow, at its base greyish green. The foot is yellow, with a shade of blue. In young birds the plumage on the under side of the body is slightly blueish. The length of this