NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 81 



coverts have the same black tips. Without a typical example professing to 

 be this species, I am unable to decide definitely concerning it, but I am much 

 inclined to doubt its validity. 



?4. Procellaria melitensis, Schembri. 



" Thalassidroma melitensis, Schembri, Catal. Ornith. del. Grupp. di Malta, p. 

 118." This is a species placed by Bonaparte as a synonym of a pelagica, but 

 by Gray considered as distinct. I have no means of judging of its validity. 

 The name is employed by Reichenbach to designate the true pelagica. 



5. Procellaria nereis, Bp. ex Gould. 



Thalassidroma nereis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, Lond., 1840, viii. p. 178. 

 Procellaria nereis, Bp. Consp. Avium, 1856, ii. p. 196. 



I have had the pleasure of examining Mr. Gould's types of this species from 

 Bass' Straits, Australia, now in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy. 

 It is a beautiful little species, quite unlike any other known Stormy Petrel. 

 In form it comes nearer to Procellaria pelagica than to any other species, and 

 it is probably congeneric with it, though it differs somewhat in the propor- 

 tions of the tarsus and toes, and very widely in its pattern of coloration. 



The bill is very small, short, and compressed. The wings reach just 

 beyond the tail ; the second primary is the longest; the third and first nearly 

 equal ; the fourth much shorter. The tail is long, slightly rounded ; the rec- 

 trices broad to their very tips. The tibias are denuded for from half to two- 

 thirds of an inch. The proportions of the tarsus and toes differ from those 

 of pelagica, in the greater comparative length of the former. 



The bill, legs, and feet are black. The head all round, the upper part of 

 the neck and the nape are fuliginous brown with a cinereous hue. This 

 bluish ashen tint becomes the prevailing color on the lower part of the back, 

 the wing and tail coverts, and the tertials ; these feathers being edged more 

 or less conspicuously with grayish white. The primaries are brownish black, 

 lighter on their inner webs, the more inner ones with an ashen tinge. The 

 caudal rectrices are light ashen blue, gradually deepening towards their tips 

 into pure black. The entire under parts from the breast backwards, and the 

 under surfaces of the wings, except just along their edges, are pure white. 

 There are a few longitudinal shaft lines of bluish gray on the sides and 

 crissum, which became still more obvious on the under tail coverts. 

 This species inhabits the Australian seas. 



7. Procellaria fasciolata, Coues ex Tsch. 



Thalassidroma fasciolata, Tschudi, Beitrage zur Geographischen Verbreitung 

 der Meeresvogel in Cabanis' Journ. f. Ornith. iv., May, 1856, p. 180. From 

 the Aurora Islands. " Sein Kopf ist schwarz, der Mantel rost braun, die 

 untere Seite der Flugel mattschwarz, die obere wie der Mantel. Vom Rucken 

 aber bis zur Wurzel der ersten Schwungfedern verlauft ein Zoll breiter 

 weisslich-brauner Streif. Der Bauch ist tiefschwarz, der Steiss schneweiss. 

 Der Schwanz ist schwarz, fiicherformig, schwach halbmondformig ausges- 

 chweift. Schnabel und Fiisse sind schwarz, die schwimmhaut sehr weit, die 

 Iris tief schwarzbraun. An Grosse ubertrifft er die Th. pelagica um ein. 

 Bedeutendes." 



The above is the reference to and a copy of the description of a species 

 recently introduced by Dr. Tschudi, and by him supposed to be new. If all 

 the characters mentioned in the description really obtain, the species is cer- 

 tainly a valid one, for it is not at all like any known species of Stormy Petrel. 

 My reference of it to the genus Procellaria is upon supposition ; for the 

 description affords not the slightest clue to its proper position. I would have 

 preferred to have allowed it to remain under Dr. Tschudi's designation, but 

 as Thalassidroma is an untenable name, I have seen fit to substitute the proper 

 appellation of the genus. It is to be hoped that we may before long know 



1864.] 6 



