An Australian Bird Book Part 7

[Page 25b]

ORDER VII.--SPHENISCIFORMES.

F. 26. SPHENISCIDAE (3), PENGUINS, 17 sp.--11(7)A., 6(1)E., 9(4)Nl.

1 5

=32 Crested Penguin= (Tufted, Jacka.s.s, Victoria), _Penguinus (Catarrhactes) chrysocome_, Southern Ocean (circ.u.mpolar), V., T., N.Z.

Occ. r. _coasts_ 27

Wing a paddle; upper black; under silvery-white; crest yellow; f., yellow crest feathers shorter. Sea-animals.

2 3

=33 Little Penguin= (Little Blue), _Eudyptula minor_, N.S.W., V., S.A., T., N.Z.

Stat. c. _coasts_ 18

Upper light-blue; under glistening-white; wing a paddle; f., sim.

Sea-animals, plants.

=34 Fairy Penguin=, _E. undina_, V., T., N.Z.

Stat. c. _coast_ 13.5

Like 33, but smaller.

Order VIII. includes the true ocean birds--those wanderers seen far from any land by ocean travellers. Indeed, many of them do not go near land except to breed. Then they usually repair to small lonely islands often with bold precipitous sh.o.r.es.

Ocean birds are readily divisible into four families. The first is made up of the 25 Storm-Petrels; the second of the 75 Petrels, Shearwaters, Fulmars, and Dove-Petrels; the third family comprises only the three small southern Diving-Petrels; while the fourth contains the nineteen n.o.ble Albatrosses.

Though Storm-Petrels and Petrels of various kinds may be seen in the Northern Hemisphere, yet the Southern Hemisphere, with its enormous expanse of water, is the headquarters of these birds.

The dainty, tiny Storm-Petrels, fearlessly tripping over the mountain billows in times of great danger to the sailor, were considered birds of ill-omen. Their peculiar flight possibly helped this idea. Gould closely studied them and other ocean birds during his voyages on sailing s.h.i.+ps. He describes them as "fluttering over the gla.s.sy surface of the ocean during calms with an easy b.u.t.terfly-like motion of the wings, and buffeting and breasting with equal vigor the crests of the loftiest waves of the storm; at one moment descending into their deep troughs, and, at the next, rising with the utmost alertness to their highest point, apparently from an impulse communicated as much by striking the surface of the water with its webbed feet as by the action of the wings."

This habit of "walking" on the sea is said to be responsible for the name "Petrel," which is a.s.sociated with Saint Peter, who, of old, walked on the waters. Sailors call them Mother Carey's Chickens.

The largest Australian Storm-Petrel is the Whitefaced Storm-Petrel, whose scientific name, _PelaG.o.droma_, means "open sea wanderer."

It has been recorded even from the North Atlantic and Britain. Many thousands of these birds still nest on Mud Island, a sandbank just inside Port Phillip Heads. The presence there of a true ocean wanderer is a valuable piece of evidence to support the geographer in his claim that Port Phillip Bay once had a wide opening, which has been almost closed by the drift of sand across its mouth. The Storm-Petrels have probably nested there for many, many centuries. Long may they continue to do so! They hurt no one, and they are a feature of interest to all interested in the flora and fauna of Australia, and to natural history students and Nature-lovers in general.

The Shackleton expedition met the Wilson (Yellow-webbed) Storm-Petrel, in considerable numbers, far south. Two specimens were presented by Lieutenant Shackleton to the National Museum, Melbourne. However, recently our Museum received, through the agency of two schoolboys, a specimen that is valued even more highly, for it is Australian.

The boys, on their way to the Marshaltown State School (Mr. H. B.

Williamson, H.T.), found a bird near a fence about nine miles inland.

It had evidently been killed by flying into the fence in the dark.

Using the _Bird-List_, the boys discovered that it was a Yellow-webbed Storm-Petrel, a truly pelagic bird, as its name, _Oceanites oceanicus_ indicates. Mr. Williamson, to show that the _List_ was of a.s.sistance, even to boys, in identifying birds they had never heard of before, left the bird at the Continuation School, Geelong. Here it was recognized as a valuable specimen, and was at once sent to Mr.

Kershaw, curator of the National Museum. It is now in the Australian collection.

The true Petrels are very numerous in kinds and individuals. Darwin thought that the most numerous of birds was a Petrel. One of great interest is the "Mutton-Bird," or Short-tailed Petrel. This romantic bird breeds by the million on Cape Woolamai and other places about Ba.s.s Strait.

Just as the mallee farmer is dependent on his annual wheat harvest, so the remarkable colony of people living on Cape Barren Island is entirely dependent on the annual Mutton-Bird harvest. They claim to take about a million and a half birds each year. The number is probably much exaggerated, for Littler, in his valuable _Birds of Tasmania_, gives the number as 555,000 for 1909, valued at about 4000. Ba.s.s and Flinders were glad to replenish their stores with young Mutton-Birds. Flinders calculated that one flock of these birds he met in Ba.s.s Strait contained 132,000,000 birds. They lay but one egg, so one would expect the Petrel to be long-lived. We found a closely-similar bird nesting on Mast Head Island, Capricorn Group.

The three southern Diving Petrels, forming the next family, are much smaller than the common Petrels. They are expert divers, and are found mainly in the far South.

The mighty Albatross, with its enormous wing-span of possibly up to 14 feet, is also largely a southern bird. That this bird has spread to the North Pacific Ocean, but has not yet penetrated any distance into the Atlantic, is another piece of evidence as to the age of these two oceans. The Pacific Ocean is a very ancient depression, while the Atlantic is much younger, and has been formed since the lands which border its sh.o.r.es. The Black-browed Albatross, however, was once seen in England. Probably this bird might have been carried north on board s.h.i.+p, and then set free again. Fossil bones of Albatrosses have been found in France and England. Their remarkable power of wheeling round and round a vessel, with no perceptible movement of the wing, has excited much interest and controversy.

Mr. Froude, in his _Oceana_, has given a vivid description of this flight. The Albatross "wheels in circles round and round and for ever round the s.h.i.+p--now far behind, now sweeping past in a long, rapid curve, like a perfect skater on an untouched field of ice. There is no effort; watch as closely as you will, you rarely or never see a stroke of the mighty pinion. The flight is generally near the water, often close to it. You lose sight of the bird as he disappears in the hollow between the waves, and catch him again as he rises over the crest; but how he rises, and whence comes the propelling force, are to the eye inexplicable; he alters merely the angle at which the wings are inclined...."

Gould considered that many of these birds circ.u.mnavigate the globe many times. They follow s.h.i.+ps for days together.

Albatrosses are sometimes caught by those on board s.h.i.+p. One means of protection employed by these birds is to discharge a considerable quant.i.ty of oily matter at an intruder. This has led sailors to declare that the bird is "seasick." Some claim that this is not done for protection, but is due to fright.

The members of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union, when on a trip in the _Manawatu_ to the Ba.s.s Strait Islands found it tantalizing to see the beautiful Shy Albatrosses sitting on their nests on the precipitous granite Albatross Rock, and be unable to land owing to the rough sea that was running. We waited a second and a third day, in the shelter of Chimney Corner, Three Hummocks Island, but finally had to depart with but a distant acquaintance with this fine bird. When they return to nest the succeeding year, the parents drive last year's brood off the island. Does the young live on its fat all through the cold, rough winter, or do the parents return at intervals to feed it?

Some recent records by a French party on one of these lonely nesting islands show that in some cases, at least, the parents do feed the young at night during their long wait. The sitting bird is fed by her mate. He opens his mouth, and she inserts her bill, and chooses a dainty for herself.

_A Monograph of the Petrels_, by F. Du Cane G.o.dman, F.R.S., Pres.

British Ornithologists' Union, was consulted for Order VIII.

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[Ill.u.s.tration: [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]]

ORDER VIII.--PROCELLARIIFORMES, TUBINARES, TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS.

F. 27. PROCELLARIIDAE (5), STORM-PETRELS, MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS, 25 sp--10(3)A., 2(0)O., 10(0)P., 7(0)E., 13(4)Nc., 13(3)Nl.

2 3

=35 Wilson Storm-Petrel= (Yellow-webbed, Flat-clawed), _Oceanites oceanica_, S. Polar regions N. to British Is.

(acc), Labrador (acc.), India, A., N.Z.

c. _ocean_ 6.8

Blackish; base tail above below white; legs black; webs yellow; f., sim. Sh.e.l.lfish, small fish, greasy.

[Page 27]

=36 Gray-backed Storm-Petrel=, _O. (Garrodia) nereis_, S. Oceans, A., T., N.Z.

r. _ocean_ 6.7

Sooty; abdomen, under base tail whitish; bill, feet black; f., sim.