30 



tndinal line of white on the under surface; the under surface of the 

 shafts of the tail-feathers presents three longitudinal parallel lines of 

 white, one central and two lateral, with broad brownish interspaces. 



Total length 14.50 inches ; length of bill along the culmen 1.20 

 inches; along the commissure 1.80; from the feathers on the side of 

 the upper mandible 1.50 ; from the feathers on the side of the lower 

 mandible 1.35; height of bill at base 0.40; width about the same; 

 length of the nasal tubes 0.30 ; wings, from the carpus, 9.70 ; tail 4.20; 

 tarsus 1.70 ; middle toe and claw 2.00 ; outer toe and claw 1.90 ; inner 

 toe and claw 1.G5 ; hallux 0.12. 



Locality : Christmas Island. One specimen. Captured on its nest. 



The determination of this species is based upon Dr. Elliott Coues's 

 *' Critical Eeview of the Family Procellariidse ". Eegarding this mono- 

 graph as the latest and most exhaustive survey of this very difficult 

 family, we find but one species that could in any way be confounded 

 with the one under consideration, and that is Nectris fuliginosus Keys 

 et Bias, a much larger species, and one, moreover, that is confined to 

 the Atlantic Ocean. These two species {fuliginosus and nativitatis) 

 are the only ones of the subgenus N'eciris whose plumages are dark 

 fuliginous without any admixture of white. 



Kuhl's Procellaria fuUginosa, sp. 12, p. 142, is recognized as the Ptero- 

 droma atlantica Bp. = JEstrelata fuUginosa Coues, which is an Atlantic 

 species, and is not a true puffin ; the Procellaria fuUginosa^ sp. 27, p. 

 148, of the same author, is a Puffirius, and is now known as the pacifcus. 

 Its flesh-colored bill and feet, however, immediately separate it from 

 nativitatis. Exactly what is the Nectris fulginosa, of Forster, no one 

 seems to know. It is barely possible that it may be the species which 

 we have just described as new ; but there is no doubt that the latter 

 is entirely distinct from all the other species which have been described 

 by the old ornithologists under the name fuUginosa. If it be the one 

 of which we have implied a doubt (this, however, cannot be proven), a 

 re-description will not be amiss, and a re-naming will be demanded on 

 account of the prior claim of another species to the same name. 



^STRELATA FAUYmOSTRlS, (PealeY Coues. [Nos. 67317, 67331]. 



Procellaria parvirostris, Peale, U. S. Expl. Exped., Orn., 1848, 298. 



Bhaniistes parvirostris, Bp., Compt. Rend., 1856, 768. 



Mstrelata parvirostris, Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1866, 146 (critical). 



Locality: Christmas Island. Breeding in January. They make their 



