226 Alexander, Tithinares in Gould Collectioiu [i.f A^rii 



Notes on Some of the Above Specimens. 



1 1 75. Though marked juvenile, this specimen of Garrodia nereis 

 is fully fledged, and cannot be taken to indicate that the species 

 breeds in Bass Strait. 



141 1. The specimen labelled Puffin lis brevicaiidits, from Western 

 Austraha, is an example of P. carneipes. I have already stated 

 in The Emu that Gould appears originally not to have distinguished 

 these two species, and suggested that his record of P. brevicaudiis 

 from Western Australia was made before he separated P. carneipes. 

 It is satisfactory to find that the specimen confirms my suggestion. 

 Western Australia can now be finally struck off the fist of States 

 in which P. tenuirostris {brevicaudus) has been obtained. 



1640 and 1651. These two specimens of Diomedea culminata 

 are labelled " AustraUan Seas." It is evident that Gould used 

 this term rather loosely, and probably any bird obtained between 

 the Cape of Good Hope and the coast of South America might have 

 been so labelled. But in the case of this species Gould specially 

 remarks that he found it commoner in Australian seas than any- 

 where else. He met with " numbers during a voyage from 

 Launceston to Adelaide, particularly off Capes Jervis and 

 Northumberland," and again observed them between Sydney and 

 New Zealand (Gould, " Handbook," vol. ii., p. 436). In view 

 of these statements we are, I think, justified in assuming that the 

 two specimens in his collection, one of which is the type of 

 Diomedea culminata, were obtained in Australian waters. 



Mathews's latest pronouncement on the subject is difficult to 

 reconcile with the foregoing facts. He writes (Mathews, " Birds 

 of Austraha," Supplement, i., p. 109) : — " This is another bird 

 that Gould said he saw in Australian waters ; but no specimens are 

 in his collection. Perhaps he made a mistake in his locality. If 

 so, I designate as type-locality of Diomedea culminata, Gould, 

 1843, the Cape Seas. If this be correct, Gould's name becomes 

 a synonym of Forster's bird. There are only two authentic records, 

 both from West Austraha." 



As there are, in his opinion, only these two authentic records, 

 Mathews consigns the bird to the Appendix, and does not give 

 it a place in his latest Austrahan hst. 



1641. The specimen of Diomedea fnliginosa, from Van Diemen's 

 Land, is an example of the entirely dark race which Mathews 

 calls Phcebetria fnsca campbelli, and which, according to many 

 observers, is quite common on our southern coasts in winter. This 

 species, hke the preceding, is consigned to the Appendix of Mathews's 

 latest list (Mathews, " Birds of Austraha," Supplement, i., p. 113), 

 as he only knew of " one specimen from Hobson's Bay, preserved 

 in Melbourne Museum." 



1670 and 1671. These specimens of Thalassoica antarctica are 

 labelled Antarctic Seas on the stand, not Atlantic Seas, as in 

 Verreaux's hst. 



1672. This bird is an example cf Priofinits cinereus, and is 

 almost certainly one of the specimens which Gould states he 



