PROCELLARIA NEREIS. 



31 



Head, body, tail, and tarsus blackish, exceptiog a white band one-half 

 inch wide across rump. 



Toes black, the webs with a yellow spot. 



These birds are crepuscular near the shore, like Procellaria nereis, and 

 much more common near our station after their first appearance on 

 December 8. I had previously seen them at sea east of the Cape of 

 Good Hope; and, on December 14, 1 saw them out by day feeding on the 

 oily matters floating away from the carcass of a sea-elephant. They 

 frequent rocky parts of the hillsides, and flit about very like swallows 

 in pursuit of insects. There seemed to be no flying insects on the island, 

 however, other than very minute gnats. The two speciuiens preserved 

 were shot on the evening of December 29, among the rocks near the 

 top of the hill on which we were encamped. I never succeeded in find- 

 ing the Qgg, but learn from Eev. Mr. Eaton, who found one on Thumb 

 Mountain, some fifteen miles from our station, that it is single, white, and 

 that the nest was made under a large rock not far from the beach. He 

 found the egg on December 8. I have no doubt from what I have 

 observed of its habits that it nests among and under rocks habitually, 

 and usually at a considerable elevation above the sea. 



PKOCELLARIA NEREIS, {Gould) Bp. 

 The Sea-Nymph. 



Thalamdroma nereis, Goui.D, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1840, p. 178; Ann. Mag. N. H. xiii, 



p. 367 ; B. Aust. vii, pi. (34. 

 Procellaria nereis, BoNArAUTE, Consp. Av. ii, 18.56, p. 196. 



COUES, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1864, p. 81. 



A large series of this pretty little petrel was collected, the first ani only ones I have 

 seen, excepting Gould's types, from Bass's Straits, now in Mas. Acad. Phila , from which 

 the account given in my monograph was drawn up. It is a small and particularly ele- 

 gant species, quite different from any other known to me ; the bluish color recalls birds 

 of the Prion group. It comes very near P. pelagica proper in form, belonging to the 

 same short-legged group, as distinguished from Oceanites and Fregctta, though the legs 

 are longer than in P. i)elagica. — C. 



List of specimens, with vieasurements. 



