The BROAD-BILLED PRION, or DUCK PETREL (_Prion vittatus_), together with another species, which like itself is peculiar to the southern hemisphere, constitute a little family apart, to which the name of Duck Petrels would not be inapplicable. The most distinctive character met with in this bird is that the margin of the upper jaw is furnished with small, thin, tooth-like processes, arranged in the same manner as in some species of Ducks, and answering a similar purpose. The wings are long and strong, the first quill being somewhat shorter than the second. The tail, composed of twelve feathers, is broad and bluntly rounded, the two central feathers being perceptibly longer than the rest. The colour of the plumage is light greyish blue upon the back, and pearl-white on the under surface; the back and shoulder-feathers are darker than the rest of the body. The border of the wing and the points of the tail-feathers are black. The eye is brown, the beak dark grey, and the foot dark greyish blue. The length is ten inches and a quarter, breadth twenty-two inches, length of wing six inches and one-third, length of tail three inches and a half. These birds are met with upon the coast of Brazil; their range extends from the tropic of Capricorn to the equator; the region that they frequent abounding in rugged rocks and small islands, upon which they probably find their breeding-places. They seem to be much more numerous in the Pacific Ocean than in the Atlantic. According to Tschudi's observations they are seldom seen swimming on the ocean, their flight being of a more sustained character than that of the Petrels generally. According to Gould, this species closely resembles the _P. Banksii_ in its powers of flight and mode of life. Of this latter he says: "Sometimes it appeared in countless multitudes, but more often thinly dispersed over the surface of the ocean. During calms it flits over the glassy waters with a noiseless but easy flight, often performing small circles and fluttering butterfly-like over any oily substance thrown overboard, which it sips off the surface without settling; occasionally, however, it rests its buoyant and fairy little body on the waters, where it reposes at perfect ease, until hunger again impels it to take wing in search of food. A more vigorous and active action of the wing being necessary to sustain it during the raging of the gale, it then moves with zigzag turns of great swiftness, ascending the billows, topping their surgy summits, and descending into the gulf between, where a momentary shelter enables it to gain fresh vigour and seize from the slanting surface any molluscs that may present themselves, and which from the disturbed state of the sea are apparently then more abundant than at other times." * * * * *