ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



11 



family, for some time after the wings have become fully fledged, may explain 

 many difficulties in determining the species of the older authors. Procellur/n 

 fuliginosa Vieillot, and perhaps of Latham, may thus prove to be the same as 

 this, described as long since as 1790. Another noticeabje fact in these birds 

 which breed on islands, especially the Gulls, Is that forms so nearly alike as to 

 be distinguished with difficulty, appear to belong to each locality where they 

 are raised, often many luindred niil^s apart, and under quite different conditions 

 of climate and food, no suitable locations occurring between. These various 

 broods all come to pass the winter on our coast, and are called species by modern 

 naturalists, while the old authors would have called them races or local varieties. 

 I have also found differences in size both of birds and their eggs to prevail in 

 specimens of this and other orders from various localities, without any differences 

 of plumage. 



62 OcEAXiTES ocEANicA Kuhl, (Coucs) — Wilsou's Stormy Petrel — {Thalas- 

 sidroma Wilsoni, Bonap. and of most authors.) — I saw a bird flying near San 

 Nicolas Is., Cal., in July 1863, which had a white rump like this species, but 

 no specimen has recently been obtained on our coast, though the Museum of 

 the Phila. Acad. Nat. Sc. contains one presented by Dr. Gambel about 1849, 

 as from " California." Dr. Townsend also gives it as an Oregon bird, and 

 Kuhl described it as from near Australia. The species certainly inhabits both 

 oceans. 



63*f PuFFixus CREATOPUS Coopcr — Red-footed Puffin — See Coues, Review of 

 Procellaridse in Proc. Phila. Acad. 1864, 131. Discovered near San Nicolas 

 Island, in July, 1863, and I have seen them since then near the Farallones in 

 June. 



64* PuFFiNus FULiGiNosus Strickland — Sooty Puffin — Found by me with 

 the preceding. Is probably the "P. obscurus " of Nuttall from the "northwest 

 coast," but has not before been proved to inhabit the Pacific ocean. 



65 DioMEDEA BRACHYURA Tcmminck — Short-tailed Albatross — An adult 

 specimen in white plumage found dead on the beach at San Diego agrees with 

 the description, except that the tail is proportionately longer than usual either 

 in this or D. nigripes Aud. The following table shows the comparative measure- 

 ments of various specimens. The three young in black plumage were shot by 

 me in San Diego Bay. 



Specimen. 



Adult, white, fresh. 

 Young, hiack " . 



Adult, dry, (Ciissin). 



D. iiiif ripen " " 



" dry (Lawrence) 



" (Coues). 



D. gihbosa (Gould). 



Tail. 



6.50 



6 

 5 



5..=;o 



6.50 



7. 



Dr. Coues, in his review of the family in the Proc. Phila. Acad., May. 1866, 

 restojres D. nigripes as distinct from brac/tijura, but possibly young of D. gib- 

 bosa of Australia, or of some form unknown in the adult plumage. As above 

 shown, the dimensions when fresh do not differ much, and I am inclined to think 



