140 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OE 



Procellaria meridionalis, Lawrence, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist., New York, iv. 1848, 

 p. 475. Id. Ibid. v. 1852, p. 220, pi. xv. Id. B. Amer., 1858, p. 827. 

 [Ex Proc. brevirostris Lawr. olim.] 

 Fulmarus meridionalis, Bonaparte, Tabl. Gar. Compt. Rend., 1855. Puffinus 

 & Herminieri, Lesson, fide Bp. " Cat. Mus. Av. Rocheforte, 1843, p. 97o, 

 sp. 5958." 

 Procellaria ruhritarsi, Gould, (nomen ined. supprimend.) 



Habitat. Atlantic ocean, coasts of America and Europe. The most boreal 

 of the bicolor species of the genus, and the only one hitherto detected on our 

 shores. 



Form.* The bill is about as long as the tarsus ; much shorter than the 

 skull ; longer than the middle toe ; very stout ; but slightly higher than broad 

 at the base ; moderately compressed in the rest of its extent. The lateral 

 lamina is very strong and large, a little inflated, short, very deep at the base. 

 The unguis is large and strong, and its convexity begins almost from the end 

 of the nasal case, leaving but a very brief and very concave culmen proper. 

 The commissure is extremely sinuate, having several different curves. The 

 unguis of the lower mandible is also strong, its point a little decurved, the 

 gonys convex, the angle at the symphysis acute but not very prominent. The 

 sulcus on the sideof the inferior mandibular ramus is distinctly marked. The 

 nasal case is in length about a fourth of the culmen ; broad, depressed, scarcely 

 carinate ; the orifice large, subcircular ; apex a little obliquely truncated ; each 

 naris oval, with a distinct septum which reaches to the end of the case. The 

 frontal feathers overlap the base of the bill, and descend in a nearly straight 

 line on the sides ; thence rapidly retreating backwards. The feathers on the 

 side of the lower mandible extend much further than to a point perpendicu- 

 larly beneath the furthest extension of those on the upper. The interramal 

 space is fully feathered. 



The folded wings reach a little beyond the end of the tail ; the first primary 

 is longest ; the second nearly equal ; the rest rapidly graduated. 



The tail is very long, being contained scarcely more than twice in the 

 length of the wing from the carpal joint. It is very cuneate in shape ; the 

 central feathers sometimes even projecting slightly beyond the rest. The 

 difference between the median and outer pair of rectrices is fully one and 

 a half inches. 



The tarsi are moderately stout, and very regularly reticulated with small 

 sub-hexaeonal plates ; largest on its interior aspect. In length it about equals 

 the middle toe without the claw. The outer toe is a little longer than the 

 middle ; but the claw of the latter is so much longer than that of the former, 

 as to make the tips of the two about equal to each other. The tip ot the inner 

 claw just reaches the base of the middle one. The latter is a little dilated 

 on its inner aspect. Hallux of the usual shape. 



Color. On the crown of fully adult birds there is a vertical central area or 

 " calotte " of blackish brown. The more mature the bird, the smaller is this 

 spot, and the more trenchantly are its edges defined against the white which 

 surrounds it on all sides. But in young or immature birds, in fact, in the 

 majority of all the specimens we examine, this perspicuous definition of the 

 dark area is interfered with in this wise : on the front many of the feathers 

 are brownish black, producing a spotted or variegated appearance ; and the 

 same dark color, usually somewhat diluted in tint, extends from the crown on 

 to the occiput, nape, and even adown the back of the neck, until it may 

 coalesce with the color of the back. On the sides of the crown the dark color 

 may be generally distributed, merging into the transocular fascia of dark color 

 which always exists. This latter band of color which passes through the eye 

 is in adult birds well defined, and quite distinct from the calotte. Iu all ages 

 and plumages it is somewhat darker in tint than the crown itself. 



* The description if taken from a specimen in the Philadelphia Academy; with which is also 

 compared Mr. Lawrence's type of Procellaria meridionalis. 



[May, 



