Shufeldt: Birds from Bermuda. 357 



Clearly, then, in so far as skeletal material representing Audubon's 

 Shearwater (P. llicnninicri) is concerned, I have at hand but the 

 sternum and shoulder-girdle from the Maynard collection and the 

 disarticulated skeleton of a " Puffinus ohscurus" (No. 17724, Coll. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus.) to use as representing that species; the value of 

 these will be touched upon further on. 



Upon comparing the cranium of this small Shearwater belonging 

 to the collection of the American Museum of Natural History, I find 

 that it essentially agrees in all particulars, apart from the matter of 



to, I find that, apart from the matter of size, they possess identical charac- 

 ters. This applies especially to the mandible, the hvimerus, the radius and 

 ulna, the carpometacarpus, the pectoral arch, the os innominatum, and the 

 bones of the pelvic limb. The extinct bird had a short sternum, however, 

 as in Puffinus creatopus and other species, while that bone in the aforesaid 

 mounted skeleton is of the elongate variety, as in Puffinus major and others. 



There is no doubt about this mounted skeleton from the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology of Harvard University having belonged to a Shearwater 

 {Puffinus) of rather small size, though typical of the genus. It was probably 

 incorrectly identified at Ward's Natural Science establishment at Rochester. 

 A paper envelope is attached beneath its stand, in which there are two of 

 the usual printed Ward's labels. In filling in the name in writing on each of 

 these, an error was made in either instance. In one it reads : " Procellaria 

 Lessoni (White-headed Petrel). East coast, New Zealand," and in the other: 

 " Procellaria Lessonii (White-headed Petrel), New Zealand." No further 

 comment is required. 



9 This cranium, when sent to me with the collection, was carefully packed 

 in a small box by itself and placed under all the other packing for all the 

 other bones. Owing to this fact, I did not discover its presence until I came 

 to repack the collection for its return to the Museum, when much to my sui- 

 prise, it was in the bottom of the original box, hidden from sight by a great 

 quantity of " imperial " or " excelsior." Had I had it with the rest of the 

 bones, it would have been duly figured upon one of the plates ; as it is. 

 Figs. 6 and i6 will have to stand for it, only they are somewhat larger. I 

 would take this cranium to be one that belonged to an Audubon's Shear- 

 water — it being either a female or a subadult individual — were it not for the 

 fact that all the other bones in the combined collections, representing Puffinus 

 parvus, evidently belonged to a number of different specimens, all of wnich 

 were adult, and all smaller in proportion, as compared with the corresponding 

 bones in Puffinus llicnninicri. Indeed, this skull coming to light in the way 

 it did, and at the time it did, convinces me all the more that, when Audu- 

 bon's Shearwater and other allied forms were to be found on the Bermudas 

 in enormous numbers, there was also present there this smaller form, — that 

 is, Puffinus parvus. (Dec. lo, 1915.) 



. ! BR 



