336 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



parison, the skull and mandibles prove the Bermuda bird to have been 

 one of the genus ^strelata. I have carefully compared certain bones 

 (metatarsus, radius and ulna, and mandibles) with skins of M. carib- 

 b(ea and ^. hasitata, the only species known to occur in or near the 

 West Indies, and find them to agree very closely in length with the 

 corresponding bones of M. caribbcea (as nearly as I can make them 

 out through the skin and feathers). A comparison with the skin of 

 ^. hasitata proves that they are too short for that species. The 

 bones found by Mr. Mowbray, therefore, belong to a species probably 

 identical in size with Ai. caribbcea, but the color of the ' Cahow,' as 

 described by the early colonists of Bermuda, differs from the Jamaica 

 Petrel (^. caribbcea) in having the wings russet and white, with a 

 russet back and white belly. The Jamaican bird is sooty brown with 

 blackish head, wings, and back, and whitish or ashy upper tail- 

 coverts. Russet is a color unknown in this genus, and, so far as 

 known, in the family. Mr. Mowbray told me, however, that he had 

 found one or two russet feathers among the remains taken from the 

 cave in Bailey's Bay, which apparently confirms the statements of the 

 early colonists, and would indicate the " Cahow " to be a distinct 

 species of ^strelata, now extinct, and not yet provided with a name. 

 " The habits of the ' Cahow ' are well described by Butler, Strachy, 

 Hughes, and others, as given by Verrill (Trans. Conn. Acad. Sci., 

 XI, 1902, 668-677), but unfortunately I have been able to find nothing 

 of importance on the habits of either ^. caribbcea or M. hasitata. 

 '■ Very respectfully, 



[Signed] Chas. W. Richmond." 



On December i, 1907. Doctor Stejneger sent the following "Memo- 

 randum '■ to Dr, F. W. True : 



" Dr. Richmond's note is interesting enough to deserve publication. 

 I do not believe, however, that his conclusion as to the specific dis- 

 tinction of the ' Cahow ' based on the russet color is well founded. 

 As he says correctly: 'Russet is a color unknown in this genus,' etc., 

 but he evidently only thinks of russet as represented by Ridgway's 

 'Nomenclature of Color,' pi. iii, fig. 16, but the early colonists of 

 Bermuda certainly did not make such a fine discrimination in the 

 application of the term. As the Century Dictionary says. Russet is 

 ' a broad and vague term, formerly applied to various shades of gray 



