PUFPINUS. 313 



Oeeanites oceanica? Kuhl. Brit. Zool. Proc. 136 t. 10, i; Yarr. 



B. B. 2 Ed. iii. fig. p. 639 ; Gould. B.Eur. -pi. 65 ; Banhs arid Forst. 

 Draw. No. 12. Oeeanites pelagica, Wils. Amer. Orn. pi. 60, 6. Oceauites 

 Wilsoni, Bp. Journ. Phil. ix. t. 8, 3. Thalassidroma, Jerd. B. hid. iii. 

 827; Str. F. iii. '^Ib; v. 291 ; vi. 490; vii. 178; Murray, Hdhh., Zool, 

 &c., Sind, p. 242. — Wilson's Petrel. 



Greneral plumage deep sooty brown, or brownish black, blackish on 

 the primaries, tertiaries, occiput, nape and tail ; secondary greater- 

 coverts and latest secondaries wood brown or pale hair brown, narrowly 

 margined towards the tips with yellowish white ; upper tail-coverts, 

 flanks and bases of some of the external under tail-coverts pure white ; 

 a few of the feathers of the lower abdomen narrowly fringed with 

 white; bill dull black; legs and feet polished black, with a conspicuous 

 pale yellow patch in the centre of each web; irides blackish. 



Length. — 7"12 inches, wing 6*25, tarsus 1*4, bill at front 0'5, from 

 gape 0-7, hind toe obsolete, hind claw just visible as a tiny spur at 

 the base of the tarsus. — {Hume, Str. F. v. 291). 



Hah. — Sind and Mekran Coasts ; also the Ganges and the Bay of 

 Bengal. 



Stormy Petrels, vulgarly known to sailors as Mother Carey's chickens, 

 and disliked by them as being foretellers of an approaching storm, have 

 long been celebrated for the wonderful manner by which they traverse 

 the ocean, flying close above the water, or passing over the wavy billows 

 pattering the surface with their webbed feet. Petrels are usually seen 

 in windy or stormy weather, chiefly because " the marine creatures are 

 flung to the surface by the chopping waves, and can be easily picked 

 up as the bird pursues its course.'^ Crustaceans, fish, molluscs and 

 floating algae are the chief food of Petrels, and it is said they will follow 

 in small flocks under the wake of a ship for the sake of picking up 

 refuse food thrown overboard. On the Meki-an and Sind Coasts they 

 are usually met with singly or in pairs flying* backwards and forwards 

 just above the surface of the water, as Jerdon justly remarks "much 

 resembling swifts, both in general appearance, colours and flight." 

 They are numerous between Charbarand Pusnee, and beyond the mouths 

 of the Indus on the Kurrachee Coast ; Jerdon records this species 

 from the mouth of the Ganges and throughout the Bay of Bengal. 



PufiBnus, Briss. Gray, Gen. B. iii. p. 647. 



Bill longer than the head, slender, compressed at the point ; lower 

 mandible reflected at the tip; nostrils in a double tube, extending along 

 the upper surface of the bill ; tai'sus moderate, compressed ; toes three 

 in front, rather long; hind .toe rudimentary; 1st quill longest. 



PufQnuS persicUS, Hume, Str. F. i. 6; V. 292; Murray, Hdbk., 

 Zool., t^c, Sind, p. 243, — The Persian Shear-water. 



Female. — The head and nape deep sooty brown, the whole of the 

 rest of the upper parts blackish brown; almost, if not quite, black on 

 the primaries, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail ; upper portion of the 

 lores mingled dusky brown and whitish ; lower portion of the loi'es 



40 I 



