156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



Pterodroma macroptera, Bp. C. A., 1855, ii. p. 191. 

 Procellaria breviroxtris, Lesson, Traite Orn., 1831, p. 611. 

 " ? Procellaria lugubris, Tschudi, " according to Bonaparte. Not of Natterer, 

 which is a Thalassidromine. 



Habitat. Antarctic Oceans. Coast of Africa. (Smith). Van Diemen's 

 Land. (Gould). 



This is a species which I recognize with much doubt. Not having access 

 to the original description by Smith, 1 cannot speak with certainty regarding 

 it. It is admitted by Bonaparte, who says of it : " Ex toto fuliginoso-cinerea ; 

 rostro nigro ; pedibus fiavidis." On the other hand, Dr. Schlegel refers it to 

 the atlantica ; and the measurements of two specimens in the Pays-Bas 

 Museum, (one an undoubted atlantica received from Mr. Gould, and the 

 other a supposed macroptera,) by no means differ in size to a degree incom- 

 patible with specific identity. If the expression " pedibus flavidis " is cor- 

 rect, the species would be easily separable. As it is, the only data given by 

 most authors are the larger size, longer wings, and grayer face, as compared 

 with atlantica. 



It is quite possible that the specimen upon which Dr. Schlegel unites the 

 two names is not a veritable example of macroptera. Bonaparte evidently 

 separates macroptera from atlantica on the strength of the difference in the 

 color of the feet. Mr. Gould says of this species : '' I think that a bird I 

 killed in the seas off Van Diemen's Land, where it was tolerably abundant, 

 and which differs from atlantica in being of a larger size, having inuch longer 

 wings and a grayer face, may be identical with P. macroptera of Smith, and 

 I therefore retain it under that appellation, in preference to assigning it a 

 new name." Here is an instance in which an author who, in extensive and 

 practical knowledge of the Petrels, is surpassed by no other naturalist, deems 

 the species sufficiently distinct from atlantica. But it is quite possible that 

 the bird here referred to is not the true macroptera of Smith ; and may likely 

 enough be an undescribed species of Pterodroma, different from both macrop- 

 tera and atlantica, as, indeed, Bonaparte hints, (page 191, Conspectus). 



On page 611 of Lesson's Traite, ' (1S31,) there is described a Procellaria 

 brevirostrts, as follows: "Bee noir, court, tres recourbo ; tarses jaune ; 

 plumage en eutier brun fuligineux ; ailes et queue noir intense. Mus. de 

 Paris." This is evidently some species of Pterodroma ; and upon this de- 

 scription, apparently, or, very possibly, upon the specimen itself in the Paris 

 Museum, Bonaparte has drawn up his diagnosis of the species he calls 

 "macroptera Smith." I cannot see why he does not employ Lesson's name, 

 which has priority over mwroptera Smith, provided the two are synonymous. 



As a resume of the subject, I may state that I think it quite possible there 

 are two species confounded in the synonyma at the head of this article. One 

 is brevirostris Lesson, entirely fuliginous, and with yellow feet. The other is 

 the species referred to by Mr. Gould, as above, as distinguished from the 

 common atlantica by its larger size, longer wings, and gray face. Whether 

 the latter is the true macroptera of Smith remains to be proven. Dr. Schlegel 

 may be perfectly right in referring the mac r opt era Smith to atlantica Gould ; 

 and yet the two species I am speaking of may also exist, distinct from each 

 other and from atlantica. 



By Bonaparte the Procellaria lugubris Tschudi* is referred with a query to 

 this species. As will be seen by the accompanying foot-note, the bird is 

 evidently some species of Pterodroma ; though the description is so brief 

 and wanting in measurements that it is impossible to say to which one it is to 

 be referred, or whether it be really a valid new species. 



Tschudi, Cab. Journ. f. Ornith., iv. 1S56, p. 85. " The whole body is dark brown, Ihe back 

 somewhat deeper-colorea than the belly; the tail wholly black; the iDner side of the win-; 

 d.trker than the outer. B.ll and feet reddish; iris ashy gray. Surpasses in size the capensis ; 

 also compressed in form. The description of P. antarctica is too inaccurate to say with certainty 

 if it be the species here described. Between 4ti" and 36." 



[May, 



