General Notes. 201 



NOTES ON THE NAMES OF HALOBAENA CAERULEA AND 



PRION VITTATUS. 



The blue petrel has in recent years commonly been known as Halobaena 

 caerulea. It was first discovered, as pointed out by Mr. G. M. Mathews 

 (Birds Australia, II, pt. 2, July 31, 1912, p. 206), by George Forster, by 

 whom it is described as follows: "the blue petrel, so called from its having 

 a bluish grey colour and a band of blackish feathers across the whole wing" 

 (A Voyage Round the World, I, 1777, p. 91). In a footnote on a subsequent 

 page of the same work (A Voyage Round the World, I, 1777, p. 98) Forster 

 names this same blue petrel [Procellaria] vittata. Mr. Mathews considers 

 this indeterminable, but there is, of course, no doubt at all regarding Mr. 

 Forster's intention, and his blue petrel, named on page 98, is, of course, the 

 same bird that he describes with sufficient accuracy, as above shown, on 

 page 91. There is, consequently, no reason for considering this name a 

 nomen nudum ; and since this blue petrel is the same bird that Gmelin sub- 

 sequently called Procellaria caerulea (Syst. Nat., I, ii, 1789, p. 560), as is 

 clearly indicated by his citation of "Forst. it. I, p. 91," we see no other 

 course than to use the name Procellaria vittata in the combination Halobaena 

 vittata for the blue petrel, commonly known as Halobaena caerulea. Its type 

 locality, it may be of interest to mention, is, as determined from an exam- 

 ination of Forster's work above cited, at sea, between the Cape of Good 

 Hope and latitude 47°10' south, and between longitude 15° and 20° east. 



Since Procellaria vittata Forster is found thus to be applicable to Halobaena 

 caerulea (Gmelin), the Procellaria vittata of Gmelin is therefore preoccupied 

 as the name of Prion vittatus, for which it has commonly been in use, and 

 the latter must take the next available designation, Procellaria forsteri 

 Latham (Index Ornith., II, 1790, pp. 827), which is merely a new name for 

 Procellaria vittata Gmelin, with the same synonymy and type locality (New 

 Zealand). If all the subspecies recently described by Mr. Mathews prove 

 valid, the forms of this species will stand as follows : 



Prion forsteri forsteri (Latham) . 



Prion forsteri gouldi Mathews. 



Prion forsteri missus Mathews. 



Prion forsteri macgillivrayi Mathews. 



Prion forsteri salvini Mathews. 



Prion forsteri keyteli Mathews. 



— Harry C. Oberholser. 



