1022 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — TUBIN ARES. 



of body. The plumage is compact and oily, to resist water ; the sexes are always alike, and 

 no seasonal clianges are determined ; but variation with age, or as a matter of individual pecu- 

 liarity, occurs in many cases, though it is seldom so conspicuous as it always is in Longi- 

 pennes, and does not run through the whole order. The food is entirely of an animal nature, 

 and fatty substances, in particular, are eagerly devoured. When irritated, many species eject 

 an oily fluid from the mouth or nostrils, and some are so fat as to be occasionally used for 

 lamps, a wick being run through the body. The egg of each species is white or only faintly 

 marked, laid in a rude nest or none, on the ground or oftener in a burrow ; the young are nidi- 

 colous and ptilopsedic, covered with notably flufly down. Petrels are silent birds, as a rule, 

 contrasting with Gulls and Terns in this particular ; many or most are gregarious, congregating 

 by thousands at their breeding places or where food is plentiful. 



Birds of this order abound on all seas ; but some are still imperfectly known. Bonaparte 

 gave 69 species in 1856; my memoirs upon the subject (1864-66) present 92; in 187J Gray 

 recorded 112 — which happens to be almost exactly the total given by Osbert Salvin in 1896, 

 though the discrepancies in detail are numerous. Mr. Salvin describes 110 species (many of 

 them unknown in 1871), which he arranges in 25 genera; with a dubious residuum of 11 spe- 

 cies. This accomplished monographer divides the Tubinares into 4 families: (1) Procellariidce 

 in a restricted sense, with subfamilies P?'oceZZartm« and Oeeanitinre ; (2) Pujfinidce, containing 

 most of the order, with subfamilies Puffinince and Fulmarince; (3) PelecanoididcB ; (4) Diome- 

 deidce. This is certainly a great improvement upon the fanciful arrangement ofGarrod and 

 Forbes, who proposed to divide the order primarily into two groups, according to the presence 

 or absence of coeca and the accessory semitendinosus muscle, — one family Oceanitidce for cer- 

 tain of the "Stormy " Petrels, and the other family for all the rest of the Petrels. I also think 

 my friend Salvin's arrangement better than that of former editions of the Key, which made the 

 single family Procellariida coextensive with Tubinares, and divided it by the character of the 

 nostrils into three subfamilies: (1) Diomedeince, Albatrosses; (2) Procellariince, all Petrels 

 except (3) Halodromince, the Sea-runners or Diving Petrels. These last, consisting of one 

 genus (Pelecanoides) and three species, resemble Auks in external appearance and habits ; 

 wings and tail very short; no hind toe; throat naked and distensible — the tuhular nostrils, in 

 fact, are the principal if not the only outward petrel-mark, and these organs are unique in 

 opening directly upward, the nasal tube being vertical instead of horizontal. The Sea-runners 

 — now called Pelecanoididce — are extralimital ; the other three families of Salvin are well 

 represented in North America. I see force in any of the various reasons alleged by some late 

 systematists for removing the Tubinares from their usual position, and shall leave them to stand 

 as heretofore between Longipennes and Pygopodes — what better links could be desired between 

 Petrels and Gulls than the Fulmars, or between Petrels and Auks than the Halodromes ? 



Analysis of North American Families of Tubinares. 



Nostrils separated, lateral. Hallux rudimentary DiomedeidcB 



Nostrils united, culminal. Hallux evident, though small ProcellariidCB 



Family DIOMEDEID-^ : Albatrosses. 



Nostrils disconnected, placed one on each side of bill near base. Hallux rudimentary ; ap- 

 parently wanting in most cases, but minute in one genus. Three front toes long, fully webbed, 

 and with lateral fringes. Interramicorn well developed. Wings extremely long, especially in 

 the upper arm and forearm, very narrow, with very numerous (40-50) flight-feathers, of which 

 10 are developed primaries, 1st longest. Unequalled powers of sailing flight are conferred 

 upon Albatrosses by such a wing, the bony mechanism of which includes a sternum very broad 



