302 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
Distribution—Has been obtained on several occasions 
between Panadure and Colombo, and has been seen by Capt. 
Legge at Trincomalee. It is found in the Indian Ocean, the 
South Pacific, and the seas round Australia and New Zealand. 
DapTION CAPENSIS (Blanford, Vol. TV., p. 357 ; 
Legge, p. 1056). 
The Cape Petrel. 
Description.—The whole head with the back and sides of 
the neck brownish-black ; the remainder of the upper parts 
white with a broad black tip to each feather, except on the 
primary coverts and lesser wing coverts, which are wholly black. 
Most of the outer web of the primary quills and the tip of the 
inner web are black, the rest white ; tail white with a broad 
black tip. The under plumage is white, mottled on the throat 
and lower tail coverts with dusky brown. 
Bill black ; iris brown ; legs and feet blackish-brown, with 
light patches on the side of the toes. 
Length 16; wing 10°25; tail 4; tarsus 1°7; bili from 
gape 1°6. 
Distribution.—A single specimen was obtained many years 
ago in the Gulf of Mannar. The species is abundant in the 
southern hemisphere, but rare north of the equator. 
Order HERODIONES. 
Ibises, Spoonbills, Storks, and Herons. 
These are all wading birds found about marshes and swamps. 
They resemble the Limicole, or non-perching waders, in 
having the neck, bill, and legs long, and the hock or tibia 
usually bare for some distance above the joint with the tarsus. 
They differ from them widely, however, in many points of 
their structure, the most noticeable outward point of distinc- 
tion being the hind toe, which in the present order is well 
developed and set on the foot in the same plane as the other 
toes, thus enabling the birds to perch firmly and to roost in 
trees. Again, in the manner of nidification and in the charac- 
ter of the nestlings they show more relationship with the 
