346 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



than a species of the genus JEstrclata, representing the second element 

 in the complex found on Guadeloupe and Jamaica. The larger skele- 

 tons seem undoubtedly to be those of a representative of that genus, 

 though which species can not be determined without more abundant 

 material for comparison. 



"Verrill does not believe that the Cahow could have been a petrel, 

 but his objections do not seem to me to be very weighty. 



"The Cahow usually bred in holes, and not in natural caves and 

 crevices like the Diablotin ; this difference in habit is not significant; 

 the Bermuda Bluebird is peculiar in building nests and not laying in 

 holes like other bluebirds ; yet I once found a nest in one of the holes 

 in the capstan of a wrecked ship near the Flatts. The Tropic Birds 

 at Bermuda nest in holes, or at least in deep crevices, which is not by 

 any means a universal habit of the allied species farther south. Pnf- 

 finiis Ihcrminicri breeds either in crevices or in holes of greater or 

 less depth according to circumstances. 



" I see no reason for doubting, as Verrill does, the statement of 

 Governor Butler that the eggs and young of the Cahow were found 

 in crevices of the ledges, though of course I would assume that this 

 was in addition to the usual occurrence in holes. 



" The flesh and eggs of the Diablotin at Guadeloupe were just as 

 liighly esteemed as food as those of the Cahow at Bermuda ; the 

 Diablotin was undoubtedl}^ a shearwater; therefore I can not see the 

 force of Verrill's remarks regarding the West Indian shearwaters 

 '.that ' their eggs are so musky that they are not edible ; certainly no 

 one would compare them to a hen's tgg. Their flesh also has so 

 strong a flavor of bad fish-oil and musk that no one would eat it, 

 unless on the verge of starvation, though the newly hatched young 

 are sometimes eaten by sailors for lack of anything better.' Barring 

 the fact that styles and tastes in food change just as much as styles 

 and tastes in anything else, and also that the Englishman of the sev- 

 enteenth century was very far from being so discriminating as the 

 Englishman of the present day, the young of Piiffiinis Ihcrminicri are 

 still sold readily in the West Indian markets wherever they are 

 procurable. 



"The color of the Cahow is recorded as 'inclining to russet, with 

 white bellies, as are likewise the long feathers of their wings, russet 

 and white [1610].' The ' russet ' of the present day is a color entirely 



