^"^'I'l .'^^'] Alkxanuek, Auslvalian Species of Tuhui ares. 15 



hiittoni, occurs in Austialin until specimens have been obtained 

 for examination, hut 1 think the species, Phcrbelria palpebnda, 

 should appear in the list. 



In diseussinj; tin- localities wiu'nci' va,ri(nis Petrels have been 

 recorded, Mr. .Mathews writes : — " Ramsay, in his ' Tabular l.ist,' 

 wrote down localities where the species might, in his opinion, 

 occur, not where they liad been known to occur," thus attributing 

 to Ramsay the origin of those wide ranges for Petrels on our 

 coasts, which have been followed by Campbell, Hall, and other 

 more recent authors. As Mr. Mathews had already made this 

 charge against Ramsay in his " Birds of Australia," vol. ii., p. 158, 

 and has repeated it since, I think it is worth pointing out that in 

 the notes to both of his editions of his " Tabular List " Ramseiy 

 stated : — " All the land-birds except five species have been 

 personally examined by me ; the remainder are chiefly ProcellariidcB, 

 which I have had no opportunity of examining. Their names 

 and the localities given are for the most part taken from Gould's 

 ' Handbook.' " A comparison of Ramsay's tables with those 

 given at the end of Gould's " Handbook" at once bears out this 

 statement. It was Gould, not Ramsay, who gave what Mr. 

 Mathews calls " most wonderful distribution of the majority of 

 species of Petrels," so that these can no longer be attributed to an 

 author " with very little knowledge of Petrels." 



In The limit, vol. xviii., p. 214, I pointed out that any discussion 

 as to " What are Australian Petrels ? " must be preceded by a 

 decision as to what we are to understand by " Australian seas." 

 I suggested that we should define Australian seas as " all those 

 portions of the ocean nearer to Australia and Tasmania than to 

 any other country." This suggestion was put forward at the 

 annual meeting of the R.A.O.U. in 1918, and was adopted at the 

 annual meeting in "1919, so that the time now seems opportune 

 to prepare a list of the species which have been recorded for that 

 area and to discuss the validity of the records. 



In undertaking this review I have consulted the following 

 works : — 



1. Gould's " Handbook to the Birds of Australia," vol. ii., 1865. 



2. A. Milne Edwards's " Faune des Regions Australes," 1879-S2. 



3. Ramsay's " Tabular List of Australian Birds," 1888. 



4. Salvin's " Catalogue of Petrels in the British Museum," 189G. 



5. Campbell's " Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds," 1900. 



6. Godman's " Monograph of the Tubinares," 1907-10. 



7. Mathews's " Birds of Australia," vol. ii., 1912-13. 



8. North's "Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds," vol. iv., 1914. 



9. Loomis's " Review of the Albatrosses, Petrels, and Diving 



Petrels," 1918. 



To economize in space these works will be referred to by the 

 numl)ers given. 1 am indebted to Mr. Loomis for his kindness 

 in presenting me with a copy of his interesting work. 



Important articles on Australian Petrels have recently appeared 

 in The Emu, containing the observations of Mr. A. F. Basset Hull 



