746 CAPPED PETREL. 



in fact little is known of the distribution or head-quarters of this 

 Petrel. An example from Hayti is in the British Museum ; Paris 

 has three, obtained by L'Herminier in the island of Guadaloupe, 

 where, however, IMr. Ober failed to rediscover the bird ,; while 

 another in Paris and one m Leiden are from unknown localities. 

 On the Continent of North America a wounded individual was 

 picked up on a salt lagoon on the east side of Florida in 1846; 

 another was shot on Long Island in July 1850 after a severe storm ; 

 three are recorded in 'The Auk' for 1894 as having been obtained 

 inland after the autumnal gales of j 893 ; and yet another was 

 obtained in New York State in January 1895. 



In an excellent article in ' The Transactions of the Norfolk and 

 Norwich Natural History Society,' vol. v. pp. 24-39, Col. H. W. 

 Feilden has summed up all that is known of the distribution of this 

 species in its former breeding-haunts in the Antilles ; and has traced 

 its successive disappearance from each, up to the last resort known, 

 namely on the Morne au Diable, in the Island of Dominica. There, 

 a coloured man, who had found the birds in their burrows in the 

 dense dripping forest, at about 2,000 feet of elevation, as recently as 

 1882, showed Col. Feilden the holes, but his dogs plainly indicated 

 that no birds were within, and the guide repeated that a species of 

 opossum, recently introduced, had destroyed them. Many of the 

 Petrels appear to frequent the land merely for the purpose of repro- 

 duction, after which they disperse over the ocean and can seldom 

 be obtained or identified ; while their breeding-seasons seem so little 

 subject to rule (within the tropics) that the best period for search 

 cannot be laid down. In case any of my readers should ever have 

 the opportunity of landing on the small islands nearest the coast of 

 Brazil known as Trinidad and Martin Vas, in about lat. 20^ 30' S. 

 and long. 29- W., they will probably make some interesting dis- 

 coveries in Petrels, even if they do not meet with this particular 

 species. It is no doubt nocturnal in its habits. 



The adult has the crown and nape dark brown, hind-neck white, 

 cheeks and earcoverts greyish ; mantle dark brown ; upper tail- 

 coverts white ; central tail-feathers chiefly brownish-black, the rest 

 more or less white on their basal portions, but broadly edged with 

 brown ; forehead and under-parts white ; bill black ; legs and feet 

 dusky-yellow. Length 16 in., wing 11 '3 in. The immature bird is 

 believed to be mottled with brown on the forehead and to be duller 

 in tint on the upper parts. 



