NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 139 



whereby we may recognize his genus. I am therefore constrained to unite 

 the so-called genus with sEstrelata.* 



This fuliginous section, then, of jEstrelata, comprehends some four or five 

 species, very widely distributed, as regards latitude ; though, so far as we now 

 know, cliierly occurring in the tropical and temperate portions of the Atlantic. 

 A new species from Jamaica is being published as I write. f 



With the exception perhaps of A. Bulweri, these are only distinguishable by 

 size and some points of coloration of the feet. 



This latter species differs from the type of " Pterodroma " in the somewhat 

 more elongated and decidedly cuneiform tail, which is hardly contained twice 

 in the wing from the carpal joint ; and perhaps in having comparatively 

 slightly smaller feet. The difference iu the tail is no greater than that existing 

 among unquestioned species of ^Estrelata : and in all other points there is an 

 absolute identity of form. This species is the type of Bonaparte's genus 

 Bulweria, and by him it is placed among the Thalassidromines ; upon what 

 grounds I am at a loss to conjecture.;); The "genus" seems to me to bear 

 exactly the same relation to Fterodroma that Thiellus, Grloger, (as defined by 

 Bonaparte to include sphenurus Gould, and chlororhynchus Lesson), does to 

 Nectris. 



The genus Cookilaria, founded by Bonaparte upon the Pr. Coolcii, Gray, has 

 not evm an apology for characters whereon to base claims to recognition. A 

 diagnosis is not attempted by its author ; aud a few weeks subsequently the 

 name is dropped ; and Rhantistes \\ substituted, although the species collo- 

 cated under the latter designation are by no means the same as those pre- 

 viously included in Cookilaria. 



The other partial synonyms quoted at the head of this article are merely 

 instances of the reference to them of some of the species included in the genus 

 as it is here defined and limited. Of the several names at our disposal, 

 JEstrelata has, so far as I can ascertain, the priority. The species given in 

 the following pages include all I have been able to learn of, through specimens 

 or books, as having just claims to recognition. Very possibly some valid ones 

 .are omitted ; and perhaps some now retained may hereafter help to swell the 

 list of synonyms ; that wearisome and vexatious, but inevitable, mass of rub- 

 bish, repelling inquiry, and retarding progress, under the burden of which 

 ornithology now labors. 



JEsTRELATA HiESITATA (Ktlhl) CoueS. 



Procellaria hoesitata, Kuhl. Mon. Proc. Beit. Zool., 1820, p. 142, No. 11. [Excl. 



syuon.] Temminck, Planches Colorees, No. 416. Lesson, Traite Ornith. 



1831, p. 611, [Excl. synon.] Newton, Zoologist, x. 1852, p. 3691. 



Schlegel. Mon. Proc. Mus. Pays-Bas, 1863, p. 13. 

 JEstrelata diabolica, Bonaparte, Consp. av. ii. 1S35, p. 189. ex "Procellaria 



diabolica, L'Herminier." 



* This procedure may stem inconsistent with the course followed in a previous paper of mine 

 upon the Puffins:. It is there, however, explicitly stated that the difference between Nectris or 

 Thiellus, and Puffirms, is scarcely aucht than that of color, and that these genera " are hardly 

 worth retaining, except it be for convenience's sake." (Page 117 : and see also pp. 122, 12S. 142. 

 143.) Tire recognition of genera founded upon fuliginous color in this family is perhaps peculiarly 

 to be deprecated ; since some species are known to pass from a fuliginous unicolor to a bicolor 

 state of plumage with increasing age; and moreover, it is by no means incontrovertibly proven 

 that some supposed fuliginous species are not merely immature plumages of others. I most 

 willingly relinquish the position above referred to ; and am now indisposed to degrade, eveu upon 

 a plea of utility, so harmonious a group as every natural genus forms. 



f Pterodroma carribsei Carte, P. Z. S. of which I learn through the kindness of Dr. Sclater, but 

 of whose characters I have no means of judging. 



J The species is also included in the genus Tkalassidroma by 6. R. Gray. Examine in this cou- 

 nection my remarks p. 89, of the Proc. Phila. Acad, for 1864, where its affinities are i-hown to be 

 with the /Kstrelatean genus Pterodroma. By a lapsus calami the word " i'ulmarese" there appears 

 instead of "JEstrelatese." 



(J Comptes Kendus. Apr., 1856., xlii. p 7C8. 



|i This is merely a misuse of a name of Kaup's founded in 1829 upon the Pr.glaciaKs, Linn., and 

 therefore a synonym of Fulmarus, Leach, of 1825. (Steph., Shaw's Gen. Zool. 1825, xiii. p. 233.) 



1866.] 



