i 195 ) 

 1). Puffinus obscurus auduboni Finsch. 



Puffinus obscurus audnhoni Finsch. in Pmc Zon]. S'ic. Loud. p. 3 (1872) ; Baird, Brewer & Ridgway, 



Watrr Birds N. Amn-ir,,, II. p. ;)86 (1884) ; Ridgway in Proc. U.S. Nid. Mv». XIX. p. 1551. 

 Ptcj^/ius nhscurus auctorum multorum, partim ; C"t. B. Brit. Mus. XXV. p. 382, partira. 



P. auduboni is the form foniid along the east coast of the United States of 

 North America, from New Jersey to Florida, and nesting on the Bahamas, as also 

 probabl}' among the West Indian Islands and on the Bermudas. 



This form is most closely allied to P. obscurus, being brownish slate-black 

 above, having white axillaries (sometimes the longest with tiny dusky tips), white 

 under wing-coverts with even a less distinctly blackish margin round the edges. 

 While in P. obscurus the whole loral region behind the upper jaw is dark, the lower 

 part of the lores is here white, there is less blackish under the eyes, the region 

 behind the eye is lighter, being rather white, mottled with dusky, instead of dusky 

 black mottled with whitish. The bill in P. auduboni is, slightly longer and stronger, 

 the wiug generally distinctly longer, the whole bird a little larger, the patch on the 

 sides of the chest lighter dusky brown. 



Under tail-coverts as in P. obscurus or with more white. Fig. 2 in [bis, 18T3, 

 p. .50 (there called P. obscurus) represents the shape of the bill of P. auduboni, while 

 fig. 1 on the same page (there called P. fcnebrosus) shows that of the true P. 

 obscurus. The figure in Baird, Brewer & Ridgway 's ^Vafer Birds, Vol. II. p. 387, 

 has the amount of white rather a little exaggerated, judging from the material at 

 our disposal. More details about the distribution of this form would be welcome. 



c. Puffinus obscurus subalaris Ridgw. (ex Townsend MS.). 



(Synonymy see above.) 



The Galapagos birds seem to us to be nearest allied to the form of the central 

 Pacific, from which they ditfer in the following points. 



There is distinctly more dusky on the flanks, which are evidently always pure 

 white in P. obscurus. The under wing-coverts agree with those of P. auduboni in 

 having no distinct broad dusky line round the outer margin, but they are more or 

 less clouded with dusky. In most specimens of our large series this latter character 

 is very conspicuous, Ijut in a few the dusky tinge is almost ol)Solete. The axillaries, 

 which are apparently always white in P. obscurus, are generally more or less clouded 

 with dusky, seldom quite white. In some specimens the whole of the under wing- 

 coverts and a.Killaries are dark dusky brown. The under tail-coverts are generally 

 wholly dark, but sometimes approach those of P. obscurus in the amount of whitish 

 near the belly. The lores are dark, only white on their lower portion, the ear-coverts 

 dusky, not mottled with whitish, but bordered with white on their lower margin, the 

 line between the white and the brownish slate-colour being generally more sharply 

 defined than in P. obscurus, and very distinctly more marked than in P. auduboni. 



The dusky colour does not at all encroach upon the sides of the chest, which 

 are purely white. 



The most obvious differences between P. subalaris and P. auduboni are the 

 dusky clouding on the flanks, under wing-coverts and axillaries, and the more purely 

 dark under tuil-covei-ts, which have always less white than in P. auduboni. 



We have received P. subalaris from Culpepper, Wenman, Albemarle, Narborough, 

 Jervis and Kicker llock, near Chatham Island. The '' bill is black above, bluish slate 



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