^°'i<|/^"] KlXCIlOkX cV- C.Wl.KV, Storm Petrels. 83 



the other toes; tarsus, 35-37 mm.; claws spatulate, very broad 

 and blunt*; legs not reaching the end of the tail. Fre(/cttornis. 

 See Figs. 1-3. 



Length of the culmen, 1.^-1.^.5 mm.; loes long, llic middle 

 toe, including the claw, 25-30 mm., being distinctly hunger than 

 other toes; tarsus, 38-43 mm.; claws, though spatulate, longer 

 and sharj)er; legs reaching beyond the tail. Frajctta. J^ee Figs. 

 4-7. 



AltlKHigh the genus Frcc/ctfoniis was established by ]\Iathews 

 in his "Birds of Australia," vol. ii., pt. 1, 1912, p. 31, it was not 

 used by him in the succeeding pages of the same work, and he 

 referred its genotype to the genus Frcgctta under the trinomial 

 Fregetta grallaria grallaria.^ Further, he confused Thalassi- 

 dronia Iciicogaster, Gould, a species of Fregetta proper, with 

 Fregetta grallaria, placing it in the synonymy of the latter. The 

 error is, however, corrected in Mathews' List of the Birds of 

 Australia,^^ where the name Fregettornis grallarius is again 

 brought to light. Later,' Mathews and Iredale give a full 

 description of this s])ecies. 



MEILLOT STORM-PETREL (FREGETTORNIS 

 GRALLARIUS, VIEILLOT.) 



Procellaria qrallaria, A'ieillot, Xouv. Diet. d'Hist. Naturelle, 

 vol. XXV., 1817, p. 418. 



Fregettornis grallarius, Vieillot, Mathews and Iredale, Manual 

 of the Birds of^\ustralia, vol. i., 1921, p. 21 ; Pis. iv.. Fig. 7, and 

 vii.. Fig. 6. 



Freqettoriiis roxaniis, ]\Iathews, Austral Avian Record, vol. 

 ii., 19i4, No. 5, p.' 86. 



Fregettornis insiilaris, Mathezvs, loc. cit. vol. ii., 1915, Xo. 7, 

 p. 124. 



Fregettornis alisferi, Mathews, loc. cit. 



Fregettornis innoiuinatiis, Mathews, loc. cit. 



Synonymy. — Examination of several specimens of Fregettor- 

 nis from Lord Howe Island, and a comparison of them with 

 the various descriptions of the above species, leads us to the 

 conclusion that all are referable to a single species, F. grallarius 

 Vieillot. Mathews'ii several descriptions are not as perfect as 

 they might be; but apart from small colour differences, his 

 measurements of the various birds are so close to each other, 



*Mathews' figure of F. grallaria grallaria (8) does not agree 

 with his description, nor with our specimens of F. grallarius so far 

 as the claws are concerned. The figure shows them to be long and 

 sharp, not short and blunt; they do not appear to be even spatulate, 

 and it seems that the figure was prepared from a specimen of 

 T. leucogaster, Gould, which we regard as synonymous with Fregetta 

 tropica. The figure of the tarsus and toes of Fregettornis grallarius 

 in Mathews and h'edale's Manual of the Birds of Australia, vol. 1, 

 plate iv., fig. 7, is correct, and typical of the species. 



