492 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



Ohs. This little Petrel was described by Wilson 

 as Procellaria pelagica, but that specific name 

 having been already bestowed by Linnaeus on the 

 common Storm Petrel, Bonaparte proposed, in 1823, 

 to name it Procellaria wilsoni, in honour of Wilson. 

 It was subsequently discovered that three years pre- 

 viously, viz., in 1820, Kuhl had named it Procellaria 

 oceaniea. Thus it stood with many writers, although 

 some preferred Tlialassidroma oceaniea, until 1840, 

 when Keyserling and Blasius established a new^ 

 genus for its reception, Oceanites, and it thus came 

 to be known as Oceanites oceaniea, thus superseding 

 the generic name given by Linnaeus and the spe- 

 cific name bestowed by Bonaparte, besides depriving 

 Wilson of the compliment deservedly intended for 

 him. This furnishes an illustration of the way in 

 which species get so disguised under new names 

 as to become unrecos^nisable. For the last thirtv 

 years I have known this bird as Procellaria ivilsoni, 

 and accordingly I prefer to retain that name, which 

 stands in the former edition of this " Handbook." 

 An interesting account of the nesting haunts of 

 Wilson's Petrel, as observed on Kerguelen Land, 

 is given by the Rev, A. E. Eaton in the " Report 

 on the Transit of Venus Expedition," Phil. Trans., 

 vol. clxviii. p. 133. Kerguelen Land, in the ex- 

 treme south of the Indian Ocean, is the only 

 known breeding-place of this bird, though in its 

 wanderings it is well-nigh cosmopolitan, being 

 found on both sides of the Atlantic, on the Pacific 

 coast, in the Indian Ocean, and on the coasts of 



