Iredale. — Kermadec Islands Avifauna. 83 



Puffinus pacificus pacificus (Guieliii). 



Procellaria pacifica Gnielin, Syst. Nat., p. 560, 1789 : Kermadec 

 Islands breeding. Puffinvs carneipes Cheeseman, loc. cit., p. 226. 

 P. chlororhyiichus, ibid. ; Buller, loc. cit., p. 105. P. c. iredali 

 Mathews, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 27, p. 40, 1910. 

 Probably the most abundant bird breeding on the island. Though 

 Hutton, Buller, Salvin, and Goodman all admitted that the Kermadec- 

 breeding bird was quite distinct, it did not receive a name until Mathews, 

 comparing it with the type of P. chlororhynchus Lesson from Shark Bay, 

 Western Australia, named it as above. However, when he came to mono- 

 graph the petrels in his " Birds of Australia " he conclusively proved that 

 Gmelin's P. pacifica, which had been previously ignored, should be accepted 

 as the species name, and, moreover, that it was best applied to this large 

 Kermadec race {loc. cit., p. 80). This course I fully approve of. 



•In the paper quoted in the introduction to this account Oliver includes 

 as breeding on Lord Howe, Norfolk, and the Kermadec Islands Puffinus 

 spheniirus. Puffinus sphenurus Gould is an absolute synonym of P. chloro- 

 rhynchus Lesson, which name must be restricted to the west-Australian- 

 breeding bird. 



Mathews has named the east-Australian-breeding form Puffinus pacificus 

 royanus (Birds Austr., vol. 2, p. 85, 1912), and Lord Howe Island birds 

 agree fairly — one Norfolk Island specimen not quite as close ; but with these 

 typical Kermadec birds cannot be confused. So that as far as comparisons 

 go the Lord Howe and Norfolk Island breeding forms must not be confused 

 with the Kermadec form, whether they be called P. pacificus or P. chloro- 

 rhynchus subspp. The name P. sphenurus must not be used. 



Pterodroma neglecta (Schlegel). 



Procellaria neglecta Schlegel, Mus. de Pays Bas, vol. 6, Procell., p. 10, 



1863 : Kermadec Islands. Oestrelata mollis Cheeseman, loc. cit., 



p. 225. Oestrelata sp., ibid. 0. neglecta, ibid. 0. mollis Buller, 



loc. ciV., p. 112. 0. neglecta, ibid., p. 115. 0. phillipi, ibid., p. 119. 



The synonymy shows the confusion that has existed regarding the forms 



of surface-breeding petrels living at the Kermadec Islands. In the Emu, 



vol. 10, p. 13, 1910, I briefly sketched the problem, and my conclusions 



that only one species without any well-marked varieties could be recognized 



by me. Further study has not more enlightened me, but has decided me 



to withhold the exhaustive account of my researches I had drawn up until 



I feel better able to give some explanation of the anomalies presented. 



The disuse of the familiar Aestrelata is due to the investigations of 

 Mathews (Birds Austr., vol. 2, p. 129, 1912). Mathews has also shown that 

 there is (or was) a bird breeding on Norfolk Island very closely allied to the 

 present species, but that 0. montana Hull ( = 0. phillipi (Gray) = 0. solandri 

 Gould = P. melanopus Gnielin) may not at present breed on Norfolk Island, 

 and has confirmed my conclusion that the bird is quite different from 

 P. neglecta Schlegel, and has given a full history of the species under the 

 name P. melanopus Gmelin. 



Pterodroma cookii nigripennis (Rothschild). 



Oestrelata nigripennis Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, No. x, p. Ivii, 



1893 : Kermadec Islands. 0. cookii Cheeseman, loc. cit., p. 224. 



0. nigripennis Buller, loc. cit., p. 113. 



This beautiful little bird is more numerous on the outlying islands and 



on Macauley Island and Curtis Island than on Sunday Island. It breeds 



