370 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



whole extended through November and December. The young 

 birds remained in the nest until March. He asserted positively, 

 however, that no Diablotins had been heard or seen since the great 

 earthquake of 1847. The old negro remembered that earthquake for 

 during it the whole side of Nez Casse, on which the Petrels bred, had 

 collapsed and fallen into the valley. Pere Lowinsky ended his exposi- 

 tion by dramatically raising his withered hand, exclaiming again in 

 his " Creole" French that the Diablotins had not been heard of for 

 nearly seventy years, — "Jamais! — Jamais!" 



A few days later I penetrated the "Grand Bois" as far as the old 

 breeding grounds of the Diablotins. A sheer wall of basalt arose 

 for several hundred feet finally losing itself in a bank of rain clouds. 

 Very little vegetation clung to the steep sides of the cliff. My guides 

 seemed to think it possible to scale the cliffs by the help of ropes. 

 But remembering the old negro's statements in regard to the breeding 

 season I did not make the attempt. 



During the rest of my stay on the island I could get no more accurate 

 information about the Diablotins. Several of the natives believed 

 queer noises which they had heard nightly some years ago to be the 

 call of the Diablotin. 



The vast jungle covering the mountainous core of Guadeloupe is 

 nearly impenetrable and entirely unexplored. While it is possible 

 that a Black-capped Petrel may still breed on some isolated peak in 

 the heart of Guadeloupe it is significant that not a single bird has 

 actually been seen in the vicinity of the island in all these years. 



13. x\estrelata diabolica (Lafresnaye). 



Diablotin. 



Upon my return to Cambridge I learned that the Lafresnaye col- 

 lection (transferred from the Boston Society of Natural History to 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology) contained two cotypes of 

 Lafresnaye's, Procellaria diabolica ^ and two other specimens of Black- 

 capped Petrel somewhat similar to the cotypes but smaller. These 

 specimens were all collected in Guadeloupe by L'Herminier in 1842. 

 On the label of one of the smaller pair (Lafr. coll. No. 8003) the data 

 reads Maupingue ou Maubingue, and on the other (Lafr. coll. No. 

 8004) Mauping ou Maupingue. 



' The third cotype (Lafr. No. 8001) was exchanged in 1886 with Prof. Alfred Newton for a 

 specimen of the now extinct Aeslrelatajamaicensis of Jamaica. 



