128 mOCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



rest of its length ; the unguis strong, much hooked ; nasal tuhes ahout a 

 fourtli tlie leugtli of the calmen, broad, depressed, obliquely truncated, the 

 septum thick, the nostrils oval; wings long, pointed, first primary longest, 

 surpassing the tail, wliich is lengthened and more or less rounded, of twelve 

 rectrices. Feet very large and stout ; tarsus compressed, as long as the mid- 

 dle toe and claw ; outer toe ahout as long as the middle, but its claw much 

 shorter and weaker ; tip of inner claw not reaching the base of the middle 

 one ; claws strong, little curved, moderately acute, somewhat depressed, the 

 middle one with its inner edge dilated ; hallux extremely abbreviated, only 

 apparent as a sliort, stout, conical, rather obtuse tdaw. Of moderate and small 

 size. Bicolor : bill and a portion of the feet usually dark colored. 



The genus Pujfinuf:, as characterized in the above paragraph, comprises nu- 

 merous bicolor species, spread all over the world. They form two groups. 

 Those of the first group are large, witli robust bills, and have the upper plum- 

 age brown or cinereous. They are major, ieucontelas, Kuhlii and creatopus, 

 which compose the " genus" Ardenna, Reich. The species of the second group 

 are allmuch smaller, with very slender, weak bills, and the upper pnrts blackish 

 or greyisli black. They are an;/Io}-uiii, i/el.cuanns, ohscurns, opisthomeJas and 

 inrgux, forming the restricted " subgenus" Puffimts. 



Pl'ffinus KtTHLii, (Boie.) 



Procellarlii puffi/nis, " Linn.," Temrainck, Manuel d'Ornith., ii. 1820, p. 



805. Vieillot, Fauna Frang, 1828, p. 404, et auct. al. aliq. sed uon 



Liuusei, quae certe P. anijlorum, Ray. 

 Procdiaria cinerea, Kuhl, Mon. Proc. Beit. Zool. p. 148, pi. ix. fig. 12; 



ex oc. Atlantico Schlegel, Mon. Proc. Mas. Pays-Bas, 1863, p. 24 ; ex 



ocean. Atlant. Sed non Gmelini, vel Lathami quae certe Adamastor ti/pus, 



Bp. est, ut bene et ssepe vindicata est a Bouaparteo ; ex maribus an- 



tarcticis prjecip, Pacif. 

 PnJ/iiius cijiereus, Cuvier, Temminck, Man. Orn., vol. iv., 1840, p. 50C. 



Degland, Ornith. Europ. ii. 1849, p. 362, et al. script. Europ. recent. 



fere cmninm. Sed non Auduboni, et auct Amer. qui P. major, Faber : 



non Lawrencii, qui Adamastor cincrewi hujus opusculi. Nectris cinereus, 



Keys, et Bias. Wirh. Europ. 1840, p. xciv. 

 Proce'laria Kuhlii., Boie, Isis von Oken, 1835, p. 257, sp. 25. Pafjinus 



Kuhlii, Bonaparte, Consp. Av. ii. 18")6, p. 202. (Sed non Cassin, Pr. 



A. N. S. Philada., 1862, p. 327, quae Adamastor cinereus, mihi, testibns 



specimiuibus ipsis.) 

 Discussion of Sijnonipni/. — There is in the Atlantic Ocean a very common 

 and well known Procellaridian, to wit, the "cinereous Shearwater," a bird 

 about the size of Puffiiius major, Faber, but otherwise quite distinct from it in 

 form, color, etc. This bird was named Pmcelluria Kuhlii by Prof. Boie, in 

 1835. (Isis von Oken, p. 257, sp. 25, which consult.) From Boie's excellent 

 characterization, and from the very marked distinctive features of the bird 

 itself, there need have been no confusion or uncertainty regarding it. But 

 before 1835, so common and well known was the bird, that it had been noticed 

 by numerous other writers, and unfortunately most of them had erroneously 

 applied to it Omelin's name cinarea ; wliile others had with equal inaccuracy 

 called it P. puffinus, Linnseus. When more recently C. L. Bonaparte at- 

 tempted to show that " cinereus, Gm., Latli.," was not the common Atlantic 

 bird at all, but a Pacific species, (described as P. haesilata by F. ster) and 

 properly the type of a genus (viz., Adamastor, Bp.) distinct from Puffin us ; 

 the assertion was illy received by ornithologists, and the general confusion 

 rather augmented than diminished. To the following attempt to unravel the 

 knotty points of synonymy involved, I would invite the particular attention 

 of ornithologists, as I hope to be able to sustain the position assumed by 

 Bonaparte. 



[April, 



