Vol. XXII. 1 

 1922 J 



KL\(;il()RX .v;- C.WJ.EV, Storm Petrels. 



lected by Air. liaxter. In this latter bird, the nasal tube is what 

 we regard as normal, being in no way damaged, and is upright 

 and recurved almost as much as in Frc</etta tropica. \\'e also 

 note that the under-portion of the nasal tube is soft, and, if great 

 care be not taken when making the bird up as a skin, is' liable to 

 collapse: this .spirit .specimen having .since been made up as a 

 skin, we find that the tube has failed to keep its exact original 

 shape on account of the contraction of the soft ])arts noted. 

 This experiment has proved that no importance can be attached 

 to the result of a casual examination of nasal tubes which appear 

 to have been soft in life. In support of this we may mention 

 that, prior to our experiment, we shared the opinion of several 

 well-known ornithologists who examined our Australian Aluseum 

 specimen, that so flattened a na.sal tube could never assume the 

 ordinary upright position found in the several well-known 

 species of Prcyctta. 



Fregcttornis grallarius, Vieillot. 



1. Shows the nasal tube in a collapsed condition. 



2. Shows normal nasal tube. 



3. The short, sub-equal toes, rounded spatulate claws, scutulated toes and 

 tarsus, all of which are typical of the genus. 



The bill. — The variation in the shape of the bill is so slight 

 that we regard it as negligible; but that of specimen (B) which 



