NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 77 



toe alone is absolutely longer than the middle one, but its claw is much 

 smaller. The apex of the inner claw reaches to the base of the middle one. 



Colors. The entire plumage is of a deep sooty brownish black, deepest on 

 the sides of the head about the eyes and on the upper parts generally, in- 

 cluding the rump, changing gradually to a lighter, more fuliginous and more 

 brownish black on the belly, under tail coverts and crissum. The major 

 alar tectrices are lighter than the rest of the plumage, though not very con- 

 spicuously so. The remiges and rectrices are wholly pure black, as are the 

 bill, feet, claws and interdigital membranes. Iris light brown. 



Dimensions. Length 1) 00 inches, extent of wings 18-50 (on authority of 

 collector's label). Bill along culmen -GO, along rictus -95 ; height at base -25. 

 width -25 ; length of nasal tubes -30. Wing from the carpal joint G-70. Tail 

 external feather 3 90, internal 2-70, depth of fork 1-20. Tibiie bare -50 ; tarsus 

 1 20, the middle toe and claw 1-10, (inches and hundredths.) 



(Description from No. 13,025, Smithsonian Register tf ; Cape St. Lucas, 

 Lower California. J. Xantus.) 



It is somewhat a question whether this species be not the Procellaria fuliffi- 

 nosa of Latham, lad. Orn. ii. 1790, p. 825. The following is his diagnosis : 

 " Pr. fuliginoso-fusca, capite, collo, remigibus rectricibusque nigris cauda 

 emarginata. * * * Habitat in insula Otaheitc ; prsecedentis* magnitudine." 



This description applies pretty well, but the dimensions are far too large, 

 the preceding species desolata being described as eleven inches in length. 

 This same " Procellaria fuliginosa, Lath.,"' is more fully described by Vieillot, 

 Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxv. p. 418, (1817,) under the name of " Petrel fuligi- 

 neux d'Otaiti." Vieillot's description, however, only applies approximately. 

 The species is there said to be " dix pouces" long ; to have the tail only "un 

 pen fourchue ;" and it is stated that the interdigital membrane "a des taches 

 jaunes ga et la." In view of the uncertainty, I do not see any cause to super- 

 sede Bonaparte's name. 



I am unable to discuss the relationships of a certain " Procellaria scapulata^ 

 Brandt," referred with a query to this species by Bonaparte. 



The third species of the genus is the one already adverted to, as that 

 one figured and described in the Birds of North America, under the name 

 and with the synonymy of the melania, Bp. 



3. Cymochorea homochiioa, Coues. 



Diag. C. Cymochorex melnmise nee perdissimilis ; sed multo minor, rostro laevi, 

 brevi, compresso, tarso nee longiore digito medio cum ungue ; plumbeo-vel 

 schistaceo-nigra vel in uropygio crissoque; subtus sensim fuliginoso-nigra; 

 alis caudaque fusco-nigris, tectricibus alarum majoribus dilutioribus. 

 Long, rostri -50 ; tarsi -90; poll. aug. alaj 5-10. 



Petrel not very unlike T. melania, but much smaller, with a short, light, much 

 compressed bill, and the tarsus equal to the middle toe and claw. General 

 color a dull plumbeous or slat}- black, growing more or less fuliginous on 

 the abdomen; the crissum and rump concolor with the rest of the plumage; 

 the wings and tail dull black, the greater wing coverts light greyish brown. 



Habitat. Farallone Islands, Pacific coast of North America. 



Form The bill of this species is not quite half as long as the skull, rather 

 more than half the length of the quite short tarsus, is much compressed and 

 not very robust. The folded wings reach a little beyond the tail. The second 

 primary is a little the longest, the third is nearly equal, the first considerably 

 longer than the fourth. The tail is of about the same comparative length as in 

 Leachii or melania ; the depth of the fork being as great as in the latter species. 



*i c. desolata. 



j Etym. Gr. opens, " like, some ;" yjot, " color ;" in reference to the uniformity 

 of its plumage. 



1SG4] 



