NATURAL SCIENCES OF PIIILADELPIIIA. 120 



The following is Gmelin's diagnosis, in copying which the italics are my 

 own : S. N. i. pars ii. p. 5G3, sp. 17. "i'r. cinerca, suhtus alba, cauda nigra, 

 rostro Jlavicante, pcdibits ccnrnlef^centlhus. "Cinereous Fulmar," Latham, 

 Syn. iii. p 405, No. 10. Habitat intra circuhim antarcticum ; glacialis magni- 

 tudine : 20^ pollices longa." It will be noticed that Gmelin's bird is one from 

 the Antarctic seas, as large as the common Fulmar, and with exactly the 

 characters of the bird afterwards designated as Ailainaslor tijpus by Bonaparte. 

 Gmelin's furtlier description will be found to confirm this opinion by each of 

 its sentences. I do not see, therefore, how it is possible to consider it as re- 

 ferring to a North Atlantic species, with cliaracters so very different as are 

 those presented by F. Knldii, Boie. 



The Proc. cinerca, Lath., Ind. Ornith., ii. 1790, p. S24, and the Pmc. cine-, 

 rea, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. D'H. N. 1817, xxv, p. 418, are both exactly the 

 same as Gmelin's cinerf-a, and so is the Puffinus cinereus of Lawrence, Bds. 

 N. A., 1858, p. 835, from the Pacific Ocean, under which head the synonyms 

 of Ada in< I sf or tvpus are accurately enumeratoil. 



The above is all that is necessary to bf! said, I think, to substantiate Bona- 

 parte's position, that P. cincrtus, Gm., is not the Atlantic bird afterwards 

 named Kuhlii by Boie. Tlie subject will be resumed and the generic and 

 specific characters of Adamastor ti/pns, as distinguished from those of Puffinus 

 Kuhlii, will be enlarged upon in another place. It now only remains to dis- 

 cuss the various synonyms of Kuhlii. 



The first instance of the misapplication of Gmelin's name, ciripre.us, which I 

 have been able to find, i.s that by Cuvier, when he calls P. Kuhlii " P. cine- 

 reus.''^ This same malidentilication has also been committed by Bonaparte, 

 (Comp. List, Bds. N. A. and Eur., 1838, p. 64.) Degland, (Ornith. Europ., 

 1849, ii. p. 362;) Temminck, (Man. Orn., iv. 1840, p. 506; Scliinz,) (Europ. 

 Faun., 1840. i. p. a93;) Schlegel, (Rev. Crit. Ois. Eur., 1844, p. 132;) Key- 

 serling and Blasius, (Wirb. Europ., 1840, p. 94.) 



The Putfinus cinereus o( Bonaparte (Synop. Bds. N. A., 1828, p. 370,) of 

 Nnttall, (Man. Ornith., ii. p. 334,) and of Audubon's works, (Orn. Biogr. vol. 

 iii. p. 555 ; Bds. N. Amer., vii. 1844, p. 212, pi. 456,) is, however, not the P. 

 Kuhlii but the /'. major, Faber. 



"The Procelluria jjujjnms, L.," of Temminck, (Man. Orn. 1820, ii. p, 805;) 

 and of Vieillot, (Fauna Frang, 1828, p. 40-t) are synonyms of P. Kuhlii. 



Yet another improper reference of Gmelin's ciitereus is found in Degland's Or- 

 nithologie Europcene, where it is placed as a synonym (with a query, hoiv- 

 ever, ) of P. major, Faber. This is just the mistake which has been generally 

 committed by American Authors. 



I am enabled to state positively, from autoptical examination of the speci- 

 mens themselves, that the bird referred to by Cassin, in the Proceedings of 

 the Philadelphia Academy for June, 1802, page 327, as Pujiuua Kuhlii, is 

 really the Adamastor cincrcv.^i, Mihi. The speiimens, three in number, col- 

 lected by the North Pacific Exploring Expedition, are lying before me, and 

 agree in the minutest particulars with the type specimen of Lawrence's P. 

 hmsilata, (Ann. N. Y., Lye. N. H., 1853) which is also Lawrence's t\ cina-eus 

 (Birds Amer., 1858, p. 835,) which is Adamas'or ti/puf;, Bp. 



Description. In general, /brw not unlike /'. major, but rather more grace- 

 ful, witii slightly slenderer and weaker bill, comparatively longer wings and 

 tail, etc. Bill scarcely if at all shorter than the head, just equal to the tar- 

 sus, moderately stout, compressed, higher than broad at the base ; unguis 

 only moderately strong and hooked ; commissure and outline of inferior man- 

 dibular rami a little curved, the former most so ; nasal tubes unusually ab- 

 breviated, measuring not over a fifth of the culmen, but elevated, inflated, 

 mediaidy subcarinate, apically obliquely truncated, the nostrils subcircular 

 in outline ; wings moderately long, a little exceeding the tail ; tail quite long, 

 90 much rounded as to be almost cuneiform, the central rectrioes muchelong- 



1864.] 9 



