PUFFINUS 367 



PufTinus carneipes. 



FI.ESH-FOOTED PETUEL. 



Pnffiiius carneipes, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, lS4-t, p. 57 ; id., Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VII., pi. .57 (1848); 

 Salvin, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXV., p. 385 (ISUG); Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol.1., 

 p. 124 (1899); North, Rec. Austr. Mus., Vol. V., p. 126 (1904) (Lorn Howe Island). 



A'l'cfris cat-neipeg, Gould, Handlik. Bds. Austr., Vol. 1!., p. 4G5 (1.SG5). 



Pnlfiiius brericaudus, Ramsay (uec. Brandt), Tal). List Austr. Bds., p. 38 (1888). 



Adult malk. — General colour alidve, blackis/i-yrei/ .■ / lie feathers of the back and the scapulars 

 irilli indisiiiicl pale hronni margins ; (juills blackish-brown ; tail feathers blackish -broicn ; t/ie lop oj 

 the head distinctly darker than the back and ivithou.t any paler rnanjins; the throat more conspicnoiisly 

 an II : the remainder of the under surface like tlie upper, but miich paler ; bill irliife faintly tinged 

 ntith flesh-colour, more distinctly at the base, the cuJineu and tip blackish-broivn, tlie fore-parts of 

 nostrils dark grey ; legs and feet white, faintly tinged nnth flesh-colour, the fore-part of webs having a 

 slight dusky /cash ; iris black. Total length in the jlesh ll'rTo inches, icing 1 .' J, tail J^'o, bill P6, 

 tarsus 2'2. 



Adult frmale. — Similar in pbomage to the male. 



Distribution. — Seas of South-western Australia, New Zealand, Lord Howe Island. 

 /TRS^HE Flesh-footed Petrel may easily be distinguished from either of its uniform and dark- 

 I coloured Australian congeners, Piiffiuiis cHororhynchus and P. tcunirostris, by its larger 



brownish-black tipped, flesh-white bill and flesh-white feet with a slight dusky wash on the fore 

 part of the webs. 



.\s pointed out by me in the " Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,"* 

 much confusion has existed in connection with this species. In December, iSyg, Dr. E. P. 

 Ramsay referred in the same journal,! birds and eggs from South Solitary Island, ten miles 

 to the north of Coff' s Harbour, on the north-eastern coast of New South Wales, to Piiffmus 

 carneipes. These birds, which I subsequently e.xamined, and exhibited one of them, were typical 

 examples of Puffinus cldororhynchus. Dr. Ramsay ; was also in error in recording Pnffinns 

 hrcvicaudns, Brandt ( = P. tcnnivostris, Temm.), as occurring on Lord Howe Island. The common 

 species found there, which breeds in holes in the ground, sheltered above by the high and dense 

 vegetation between Middle Beach and Transit Hill, is Pnffiniis carneipes. P. tciinirostris is not 

 found on Lord Howe Island, nor does it occur anywhere in the vicinity. 



Neither Gould's figure of this species in his folio edition of the "Birds of .Australia," nor Dr. 

 F. Du Cane Goodman's figure in his " Monograph of the Petrels," have the bill and legs like 

 those of the living birds. Birds from Lord Howe Island have the bill dull white, with a fleshy 

 shade at the base, the culmen and tip brownish-black ; legs and feet dull white, with a very 

 faint fleshy tinge, the fore part of the webs having a slight dusky wash. Birds that have been 

 dead only a few hours have the legs and feet flesh colour, and they get darker every day, and 

 when the skin has been removed for a month, the legs and feet become a dark flesh colour, and 

 it would be impossible to tell what colour they were during life. It may be as well to point out 

 here that the remarks of Dr. Ramsay, made at a meeting of the Linnean Society of New South 

 Wales relative to birds and eggs from South Solitary Island, and which have been partially 

 transcribed by Mr. F. Du Cane Goodman in his " Monograph of the Petrels," do not really 

 refer to Pujjinus carneipes but to P. chlorovhynchus. 



* Abstr. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, p. v., 26th April, 1911. 

 t Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, Vol. IIL, p. 406 (1S79). 

 ; Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. Bds., p. 38 (18SS). 



