12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 123 



Very similar but lacking the white tipping are a kempi from Chatham 

 Island, May 1892 (USNM 208603), and an elegans from Nightingale 

 Island, November 1950 (AMNH 648710)." A new subspecies, 

 P. a. myrtae, with distinct white feather edgings, however, has been 

 described recently (Bourne, 1959) and it appears that immatures and 

 fresh-plumaged adults frequently possess white feather edgings that 

 soon wear off (Bourne, 1959; Palmer, 1962). The specimens from 

 St. Paid fit into the complex of southern P. assimilis popidations, but, 

 in view of the uncertain taxonomic relationships of these shearwaters, 

 it seems inadvisable to assign them to subspecies on the basis of the 

 specimen material presently available. 



A breeding population of P. assimilis has not yet been described 

 from St. Paul Island. Jouanin and Paidian (1960) reported the species 

 from a single subfossil tarsus and there is a recently fledged young 

 specimen, which was collected near St. Paul Island on Jan. 26, 1956, 

 by P. Paulian, in the collections of the Museum National D'Histoire 

 Naturelle in Paris (Jouanin, in litt.) . 



Puffinus Iherminieri Audubon's Shearwater 



This small shearwater was common in the vicinity of Socotra, the 

 Seychelles, Mauritius, and Reunion Islands, but not in the intervening 

 seas (see table 5). A flock of 15 small black and white shearwaters 

 {P. I. persicus?) was also seen near the Pakistani coast between Bombay 

 and Karachi on May 18, 1964. 



Four P. Iherminieri came aboard the Anton Bruun just north of the 

 Seychelles during the evening of Feb. 11, and were collected. These 

 specimens, however, will be included in a more comprehensive dis- 

 cussion of the seabirds of the Seychelles (Gill, in prep.). 



Pterodroma haraui Barau's Petrel 



A Pterodroma petrel, which I was unable to identify at the time, was 

 fairly common in the vicinity of Reunion Island on Mar. 3 and 4, 

 1964. Scattered individuals, apparently of the same species were 

 seen as far south as 27°02' S (see table 6). Subsequent observations 

 and study of Barau's petrel on Reunion (Jouanin and Gill, MS) 

 convinced me that I had been seeing this recently described species. 

 Description (from at-sea observations) : upperparts light brown, 

 primaries darker; underparts white including the undersurface of the 

 wing, except for a narrow black band on the fore-edge of the wing 

 becoming widest in the primaries; face white; whitish collar; tail 

 rounded; flight with pronounced soaring and swooping, rising high on 

 the upswing, no flapping. Especially confusing was the fact that the 

 back appeared brown, not the characteristic grey of P. haraui in the 

 hand, but this undoubtedly resulted from the phenomenon whereby 



