83 XF.W ZKAI.AXn niRDS. 



" Jt is very common on tlie Tasmaviian and New Zealand coasts, 

 and is undoubted!)'- the bird ~Slv. Gould refers to as the dark Petrel 

 Avitli a grey face, which he shot off the coast of Tasmania, and which 

 he suggests might be ProrcUaria mdcroptera of Dr. A. Smith. 

 According to that author, however, the bird he called P. macroptt'ra 

 has no grey face, but a white circle round the eye and reddish- brown 

 legs and feet, in all of which respects it differs from the present 

 bird."— IIuTTox. 



140. Procellaria egerulea. Gml. 



Blfe Petrei- 

 Above, ash, bliukish on the top of the head ; foivlieail, white ; below, white ; tail, grey, 

 with a white tip. 



L., 11-5 ; W., 9 ; B., 1-25 ; T., 1-25. 

 7/ff7>.— Both Islands. Fiji Ishuula. 



" There is only one spseiincn of this Petrel in the Auckland 



Museum ; and it does not occur, so far as I am aware, in any other 



collection in the colony. ]\Ir. Gould, however, states that he found 



it ' very abundant off the north-east coast of New Zealand ' in May, 



1810, and that he observed it in every part of the ocean he traversed 



between the lOth and 55th degrees of south latitude, both in the 



Atlantic and Pacufic." — Buller. 



141. ProcoUai'ia afiinis. Buller. 



Piuinage sotiiewlnt similar to that of P. mollis. The raeasuremeni?, however, are 

 diflereiit, Procellaria mollis, with a wing nearly an inch shorter than I', ajfinis, having a 

 decidedly lonjjer tarsus, and (he tail a full inch longer. 



L., 13 ; W., 10-5 ; B., 1-25 ; T., 1-2. 



Note. — This s))ccie3 bears a general resemblance to F. coolcii, but has longer wings and 

 shorter legs. It also approaches P. leucoplera ; but the latter, according to Q-ould, has the 

 wing 2 inches shorter, although the other proportions arc the same. The four allied si:)ecies 

 appear to form together a very natural group or sub-genus. 



142. Procellaria antarctiea. Oml. 



Head, neck, and upper surface, dark brownish-grey, shading off to bi'own on the sides of 

 neck and ou the throat ; wiiig-covcrts and secondaries, white, forming a distinct alar bar ; 

 tail, white, lerniinally banded with brownish-black ; uuder-surface, white ; bill, black ; legs 

 and feet, brownish-grey. 



L., 11-4 ; W., 11-8 ; B , 1-5; T., 15. 



Note. — This bird is the Priocella antarctiea of Dr. Hector's notice in Trans. N. Z. Inst., 

 Yol. IX., p. 4G1. In 18 41' MM. Ilombron and Jacqucjnot proposed separating the group 

 Priocella. from the typical Procellaria ; but this division has not been generally adopted. 



There is some doubt as to the projDricty of admitting this species 

 into our avifauna, the specimen described by Dr. Hector having been 

 shot in lat. 45° S., long. 118° 9' E., or about 1,000 miles west of Tas- 

 mania, and in the latitude of Otago. It was included among the 

 birds of New Zealand in " The Voyage of the ' Erebus ' and ' Ter- 

 ror;'" and one or more of the five specimens in the British ^Museum 

 are said to have been captured in our seas, but the evidence is by ng 

 means complete, 



