Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume I Part 6

Breadth across the body, 8 inches.

Length of bill, 6.7 inches.

Length of foot, 7.5 inches.

FOURTH SPECIMEN. The same size as the second.

Length of beak, 6.3 inches.

Length of foot, 6.9 inches.

The beak of each of these birds during lifetime was of a beautiful light rose colour; their voice was something like that of a goose, but rather louder, deeper, and hoa.r.s.er. If during life the beak was pressed with the finger it became quite white, and it was not until the pressure had for some time been removed that the colour returned. The specimens I have described above (all males) were quite white underneath; the white above being speckled with black spots and streaks, sometimes changing to a brownish hue; the wings were black. We obtained also a female bird with the following measurements, which has been described as a distinct species:

Length from tip to tip of wing, 7 feet 2 inches.

Length from tip of tail to tip of beak, 3 feet 5.5 inches.

Length from root to tip of tail, 9 inches.

Length of beak, 4.5 inches.

Length of foot, 5 inches.

Legs pale flesh colour; beak, black, with a brown-coloured streak on each side of the lower mandible; the whole body of a dirty black colour, acquiring a lighter tinge underneath.

October 30.

I shot two male specimens of this last bird: the only distinction between them and the female was that they were rather smaller, and had a white streak instead of a light brown one on each side of the lower mandible.

FIRST SPECIMEN--Male. Weight, 5 1/2 pounds.

Length from tip of wing to tip of wing 6 feet 6 inches.

Length from tip of beak to tip of tail, 2 feet 6 inches.

Length from root to tip of tail, 11 inches.

Length from root to tip of beak, 4 inches.

Length from root to tip of foot, 5 inches.

Length from root to tip of wing, 2 feet 10 inches.

SECOND SPECIMEN--Male. Weight 7 pounds.

Length from tip to tip of wing, 6 feet 9 inches.

Length from tip of beak to tip of tail, 2 feet 10 inches.

Length of tail, 10.6 inches.

Length of beak, 4.7 inches.

Length of foot, 5 inches.

Length of wing, 3 feet.

All the three specimens of this species had a distinct although minute claw, representing a thumb, upon one leg, thus apparently forming a link between the genus Procellaria and the genus Diomedea.

PACHYPTILA VITTATA.

Ash-grey above; white in the under parts; quills, tail-feathers at the tip, and band on the wings when expanded, brownish-black.

Length from tip to tip of wing, 2 feet.

Length from tip of beak to tip of tail, 10 inches.

Length from root to tip of tail, 4.3 inches.

Length of beak, 1 inch.

Length of foot, 1.5 inches.

Length of wing, 10.5 inches.

This bird is of the same species as the one I procured on the 16th of October. I shot it about nine A.M. They are very numerous in these lat.i.tudes; their flight resembles much that of a snipe. The name by which they are known to the sailors is the whale-bird; they appear to take their food upon the wing, for I have never yet seen them sit upon the waters even for a single second, although I have observed them frequently, and at all hours; but night and day they hurry on with the same restless, rapid flight, sometimes going in large flocks; and I have never upon sh.o.r.e seen so many birds a.s.sembled upon a few square miles as I have sometimes here observed in the open ocean. I never heard them utter any cry or sound.

I saw but few Cape pigeons (Procellaria capensis) after pa.s.sing the 40th degree of longitude, and neither Cape pigeons nor albatrosses after pa.s.sing the 95th degree of longitude, and 32nd parallel of lat.i.tude. I have never seen a petrel or bird of the family Longipennes discharge its oily fluid at anyone who worried or attacked it; but have almost invariably seen it involuntarily eject it,when hurt or frightened.

THE ALBATROSS.

November 9.

I caught four albatrosses with a fis.h.i.+ng-line; one of them was a female, the first I had seen. I observed no marked difference between her and males of the same species, for I have found them vary much in the dark shades upon their feathers.

I have yet found no bird of this family whose foot was not longer than its beak.

DIOMEDEA EXULANS--Female.

Length from tip of wing to tip of wing,10 feet 10 inches.

Length from tip of wing, 4 feet 10 inches.

From tip of beak to tip of tail, 4 feet 9 inches.

Length of beak, 7.2 inches.

Length of tail, 9 inches.

Length of foot, 7.5 inches.

The black and brown marks on this bird were darker than the corresponding ones on the males.

I am inclined to think that the chief characteristic that distinguishes the females from the males in the family Longipennes is their greater size: my opinion is grounded upon the following tables, drawn up from careful measurements, made by myself.

(@@@TABLE OF FAMILY LONGIPENNES)

In each of these three instances the female is larger than the males; they are the only ones I am able to adduce which bear upon this point.

November 11. South lat.i.tude 30 degrees 47 minutes; east longitude 100 degrees 21 minutes 15 seconds.

Being a calm, I gave the men leave to bathe this afternoon, and was one of the first overboard myself. Within an hour and a half after we had done bathing, a cry of a shark was raised, and in truth there was the monster (the first we had seen). I mention this fact as tending to support what I have often heard stated, namely, that a shark's sense of smell is so keen that, if men ever bathe in seas where they are found, a shark is almost sure to appear directly afterwards. This really occurred in the present instance.

We repeatedly caught many little animals which I believe are the VELELLA of Lamarck. They consist of a flat oval cartilage, on which they float; there is a mouth in the inferior surface of this surrounded with many tentacula; on its superior surface is a crest which remains above water, and the wind blowing against it turns the animal round; they thus swim with a rotatory motion; the crest is placed obliquely to the length of the oval cartilage, and this position of it perhaps a.s.sists in producing the motion; the crest is perfectly transparent, but marked with little striae; the oval cartilage is marked with concentric striae, which indicate the lines of its growth; in some this cartilage is transparent, in others quite blue.

November 12. South lat.i.tude 30 degrees 11; east longitude 100 degrees 31 minutes 30 seconds.

We caught several beautiful animals this day, of the Medusae kind (Diphya). (See Ill.u.s.tration 3 Diphya, Sp.)

Figure 1 represents a section through one of them, the size of life: the bag (1) is of a delicate bright amber colour. The long tentacula issuing out are upwards of a foot in length and of a bright flesh colour.

(Ill.u.s.tration 3)

Figure 2 is a section across the animal.

Figure 3 represents the mouth of the large opening at c, d, as if one was looking down into it.