128 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



rest of its length ; the unguis strong, much hooked ; nasal tubes about a 

 fourth the length of the culmen, broad, depressed, obliquely truncated, the 

 septum thick, the nostrils oval ; wings long, pointed, first primary longest, 

 surpassing the tail, which is lengthened and more or less rounded, of twelve 

 rectrices. Feet very large and stout ; tarsus compressed, as long as the mid- 

 dle toe and claw ; outer toe about as long as the middle, but its claw much 

 shorter and weaker ; tip of inner claw not reaching the base of the middle 

 one ; claws strong, little curved, moderately acute, somewhat depressed, the 

 middle one with its inner edge dilated ; hallux extremely abbreviated, only 

 apparent as a short, stout, conical, rather obtuse claw. Of moderate and small 

 size. Bicolor : hill and a portion of the feet usually dark colored. 



The genus Puffinus, as characterized in the above paragraph, comprises nu- 

 merous bicolor species, spread all over the world. They form two groups. 

 Those of the first group are large, with robust bills, and have the upper plum- 

 age brown or cinereous. They are major, leucomelas, Kuhlii and creatopus, 

 which compose the " genus" Ardenna, Reich. The species of the second group 

 are all much smaller, with very slender, weak bills, and the upper parts blackish 

 or greyish black. They are anglorum, yelcuanus, obscurus, opisthomelas and 

 nvtgax, forming the restricted " subgenus " Puffinus. 



Puffinus Kuhlii, (Boie.) 



Procellaria puffinus, " Linn.," Temminck, Manuel d'Ornith., ii. 1820, p. 



805. Vieillot, Fauna Franc, 1828, p. 404, et auct. al. aliq. sed non 



Linnsei, quae certe P. anglorum, Ray. 

 Procellaria cinerea, Kuhl, Mon. Proc. Beit. Zool. p. 148, pi. ix. fig. 12; 



ex oc. Atlautico Schlegel, Mon. Proc. Mus. Pays-Bas, 1863, p. 24 ; ex 



ocean. Atlant. Sed non Gmelini, vel Lathami quae certe Adamastor typus, 



Bp. est, ut bene et srepe vindicata est a Bonaparteo ; ex maribus an- 



tarcticis prsecip, Pacif. 

 Puffinus cinereus, Cuvier, Temminck, Man. Orn., vol. iv., 1840, p. 506. 



Degland, Ornith. Europ. ii. 1849, p. 362, et al. script. Europ. recent. 



fere cmnium. Sed non Auduboni, et auct Amer. qui P. major, Faber : 



non Lawrencii, qui Adamastor cinereus hujus opusculi. Nectris cinereus, 



Keys, et Bias. Wirb. Europ. 1840, p. xciv. 

 Procellaria Kuhlii, Boie, Isis von Oken, 1835, p. 257, sp. 25. Puffinus 



Kuhlii, Bonaparte, Consp. Av. ii. 1856, p. 202. (Sed non Cassin, Pr. 



A. N. S. Phila la., 1862, p. 327, quae Adamastor cinereus, mihi, testibus 



speciminibus ipsis.) 

 Discussion of Synonymy. There is in the Atlantic Ocean a very common 

 and well known Procellaridian, to wit, the " cinereous Shearwater, " a bird 

 about the size of Puffinus major, Faber, but otherwise quite distinct from it in 

 form, color, etc. This bird was named Procellaria Kuhlii by Prof. Boie, in 

 183">. (Isis von Oken, p. 257, sp. 25, which consult.) From Boie's excellent 

 characterization, and from the very marked distinctive features of the bird 

 itself, there need have been no confusion or uncertainty regarding it. But 

 before 1835, so common and well known was the bird, that it had been noticed 

 by numerous other writers, and unfortunately most of them had erroneously 

 applied to it Gmelin's name cinerea ; while others had with equal inaccuracy 

 called it P. puffinus, Linupens. When more recently C. L. Bonaparte at- 

 tempted to show that " cinereus, Gm., Lath.," was not the common Atlantic 

 bird at all, but a Pacific species, (described as P. hacsitata by F. ster) and 

 properly the type of a genus (viz., Adamastor, Bp.) distinct from Puffinus ; 

 the assertion was illy received by ornithologists, and the general confusion 

 rather augmented than diminished. To the following attempt to unravel the 

 knotty points of synonymy involved, I would invite the particular attention 

 of ornithologists, as I hope to be able to sustain the position assumed by 

 Bonaparte. 



[April, 



