7o8 



PETREL 



and it is now hard to resist the conclusion that they have to be 

 regarded as an " Order," to which the name Tubinares has been 

 ajDplied from the tubular form of their nostrils, a feature possessed 

 in greater or less degree by all of them, and one by which each may 

 at a glance be recognized. They had been variously subdivided ; 

 but to little purpose until the anatomy of the group was subjected 

 to comparative examination by Garrod and W. A. Forbes, the latter of 

 Avliom summed up the results obtained by himself and his predecessor 

 in an elaborate essay (forming part ix. of the Zoology of the voyage of 

 the ' Challenger ') which shewed determinations that differed greatly 

 from any that had been reached by prior systematists. According 

 to these investigators, the Tubinares are composed of two Families, 



Petrel, Prion turtur. (After BuUer.) 



Procellariidx and Oceanitidx, whose distinctness had hardly before 

 been suspected ^ — the latter consisting of four genera not very much 

 differing in appearance from many others, while the former includes 

 as subfamilies Diomedeinai (Albatros), with three genera, Diomedea, 

 Thalassiarche and Fhoebetria, and the true Petrels, Frocellariinai, in 

 which last are combined forms so different externally and in habit 

 as the Diving-Petrels, Pelecanoides or Halodroma, the Storm-Petrels, 

 Procellaria, the Flat-billed Petrels, Prion, the Fulmar, the Shear- 

 waters and others. Want of space forbids us here dwelling on 

 the characters assigned to these different groups, or the means which 

 have led to this classification of it, set forth at great length in the 

 essay cited where also will be found copious references to previous 

 studies of the Petrels. ^ 



^ It is due to Prof. Coues to state that iu 1864 he had declared the genus 

 Oceanites, of which he only knew the external characters, to be " the most 

 distinct and remarkable" of the "Procc^fan'ea;," though lie never thought of 

 making it the type of a separate Family. 



- Among these may here be especially mentioned those of Quoy and Gaimard 

 {Ann. Sc. Nat. v. pp. 123-155, and Voy. dc V Uremic et la Physicicnnc, Zool. pp. 

 142-169) ; Jacquinot {CoviiMs Rcndus, 1844, pp. 353-358, axui Zool. Voy. au Pol 

 Slid, iii. pp. 128-152) ; Prof. Coues (Proc. Acad. Philad. 1864, pp. 72-91, 116- 

 144, and 1866, pp. 25-33, 134-197) ; Mr. Salvin {Orn. Miscdl. ii. pp. 223-238, 



