148 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



Habitat. " Pacific Ocean. Kermadec Islands. Sunday Island." [Schlegel.] 



I can offer no opinion concerning this supposed species, except to state that 



it may possibly be, as Dr. Schlegel himself seems inclined to suspect, the 



^Estrelata parvirostris. But this latter species itself is so very near mollis 



Gould, that it may hereafter prove to be only a state of plumage of the latter. 



iE.STRELATA SoLANDEI (Gould) CoilOS. 



Procellaria Solandri, Gould, P. Z. S., March 26, 1844, p. 57. Gould, Ann. and 

 Mag. N. H. xiii. 1844, p. 363. Gould, Introd. Birds Aust. 1848. p. 116. 

 Cookilaria Solandri, Bonaparte, C. A. 1855, ii. p. 190. 

 Procellaria melanopus, Natterer, fide Gould. (Not of Gmelin.) 



"Head, back of the neck, shoulders, primaries and tail dark brown ; back, 

 wing coverts and upper tail coverts slate -gray, each feather margined with 

 dark brown ; face and all the under surface brown, washed with gray on the 

 abdomen ; bill, tarsi, and membranes black. 



"Total length 16 inches; bill 1^; wing 12; tail 5| ; tarsi ; middle 

 toe and nail 2|." 



The preceding is a copy of Mr. Gould's description of this species. This 

 author further says of it. "This is a remarkably robust and compact bird. 



1 shot a single individual in Bass' Straits, on the 13th of March 1839. M. 

 Natterer thought that it might possibly be identical with the bird figured in 

 Banks' drawings, and to which Dr. Solander has affixed the term melanopus, 

 an opinion in which I cannot concur. I have accordingly named it in honor 

 of that celebrated botanist. The specimen above described may possibly 

 prove to be not fully adult, as the dark coloring of the under surface only 

 occupies the extreme tips of the feathers the basal portions of which are 

 snow-white." 



I have not enjoyed an opportunity of examining a specimen of this species, 

 and none, so far as I am aware, are contained in any American collection. It 

 appears to be exceed ; ngly distinct from any other species of sEttrelata, if not 

 in colors at least in proportions of bill and feet, as compared with the abso- 

 lute size of the bird. The dimensions of these parts as given by Mr. Gould, 

 particularly the shortness of the tarsi, as compared with the lengths of the 

 toes, are quite different from that of any other species of the genus ; so much 

 so that the bird may not be a true sEstrelata ; upon which point however I 

 cannot now give a definite opinion. The type of the species is doubtless, as 

 Mr. Gould surm'ses, not fully adult ; and when mature the dark coloring of 

 the under parts will in all probability disappear, leaving the whole inferior 

 regions of the body white. The unicolor pattern of the feet is diverse from 

 the ordinary style which prevails in nearly all the species of the genus. 



By Bonaparte the species is referred to his "genus " Cookilaria, though 

 for what reason is not obvious, since Mr. Gould particularly notes that his 

 species is a " remarkably robust and compact bird," while the type of 

 "Cookilaria" is the leucoptcra Gould; almost the very smallest and most 

 gracefully formed species of JEilrelata. Dr. Schlegel's identification of So- 

 landri with grisea of Kuhl is elsewhere commented upon. 



iEsTRELATA GEISEA (Kuhl) CoueS. 



Procellaria grisea, Kuhl, Mon. Proc. Beit. Zool. 1820, p. 144, No. 15, fig. 9. 

 But not of Latham.* Schlegel. Mon. Proc. Mus. Pays-Bas. 1S63, p. 

 12 ; (excluding synonymy ) 



*Lath. Syn. 1785. iii. part ii. p. 399, No. 4. " Size of a jack-daw; length 14 or 15 inches. Bil 1 



2 inches long, and brown; the whole plumage black or sooty ; the under wing coverts white, with 

 black shafts; the wings rather exceed the t;iil in length ; the forepart of the legs greenish blue. 

 The specimen in the Leverian Museum has the chin and throat of a whitish color, inhabits the 

 80uthe n hemisphere from35 to 0. Seems much allied to the Bin k Petrel," (sequinoctialis ) 



This is a species of Latham's which has not so far as I am aware been identithd by later 

 writers; and 1 find it quite impossible, from the above mengre indication, to come to any definite 

 conclusion regarding it. it is. however, in all probability some species of iV. rt.ris, of the l'ttffinetu : 

 fo that we need not therefore be prevented trom using Kuhl's came of grisea for a bird of the 

 g.-nus sEslrelala. 



[May,. 



