NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. loo 



grounds Teraminck asserts that the P. puffinus, Kulil., and the P. ctnerea 

 Kal\l, are '' le vieux et le jeiine de la mJme esp3ce." Kuhl's descriptions 

 certainly indicate the two dift'erent species ; and liis passable figures of their 

 heads are distinct enough from each other. But if Temminck could stoutly 

 maintain to the last that P. fulirjinosus, Strickl., was the female of/*, major, 

 Fab. (!), it is the less to be wondered at that he should commit the error we 

 are now discussing. 



It is a little doubtful what species is referred to by Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. 

 d'H. N. XXV, 1817, p. 421, under thename of '■ Le Petrel-puffin, Procellaria 

 puffinus, Lath" The dimensions given (" qiiinze pouces ") appertain best to 

 the aiiglonim ; but the description is entirely that of the P. Knldii, which it 

 is doubtless best to consider it. The Procellaria puffinus of Vieillot's Fauna 

 Franc. 1S28, p. 404, is undoubtedly the true cineveus. 



Dr. Degland in his Ornithologie Europ'-ene, p. 363, gives a good description 

 of this species under its proper name of Puff", major, but he is in error in 

 citing as synonyms the Puffinus cinercus, Brisson, or the Procellaria cinerca 

 Gmelin and Latham. 



Description. — Form: Bill but very little shorter than the head or tarsus, 

 stout and subterete at the bas", then gradually more and more compressi^d to 

 the strong, deep, much curved unguis. Nasal tubes straight, about a fourth 

 the length of the culnien, somewhat dilated, the apertures widely separated, 

 sub-elliptical. The culmen rises gradually with a slight but continuous 

 concavity from the nostrils to the summit of the unguis. The commissure 

 from the insertion of the feathers to the declination of the unguis is a long 

 regular curve, whose convexity looks downwards. The outline of the inferior 

 mandibular rami is nearly straight. The bill is about three times as long as it 

 is high at the base, considerably less wide than high. The primaries are long, 

 somewhat narrow, rather acutely pointed, the first longest, the second 

 nearly equal, the rest rapidly graduated. The tail is long, being contained 

 only about two and a third times in the wing from the carpus ; so much 

 rounded as to be almost cuneiform ; the central rectriees projecting consid- 

 erably, and the lateral being much abbreviated. The tarsus is as long as the 

 middle toe alone, compressed as usual, but very stout and strong. The 

 outer toe is as long or slightly longer than the middle, but the small size of 

 its claw makes it fall short of the tip of the middle claw. The inner toe is 

 unusually abbreviated, the tip of its claw falling far short of the base of the 

 middle one. 



Color. — Upper parts dark bistre brown ; on the head inclining a little to 

 plumbeous or grayish brown ; on the tertials and rumj) the deepest ; each 

 feather of the back, rum}), and wing coverts with a margin of lighter brown, 

 which in freshly plumaged birds is so light as to be almost ashy white ; on 

 the head the color is uniform without any lighter margins, and jt extends 

 considerably below the eyes, just to the level of the gape, having a clear and 

 distinct line of demarcation with the white of the throat. Posteriorly on the 

 side of the neck the white reaches further round on the nape, and has a 

 more indefinite outline. Backwards still on the sides of the breast, the dark 

 color reaches farther down, encroaching on the white of that region. The 

 upper tail coverts, especially the longest and most posterior ones, are mostly 

 white, but with transverse rays or central spaces of brown. The primaries 

 are brownish black, deepest on their outer webs ; on their inner webs, towards 

 their bases, gradually lightening till they become brownish white, or even 

 nearly pure white, in freshly plumaged birds, especially on the innermost pri- 

 maries. The under parts from chin to anus are white ; this color interrupted on 

 flanks by the more or less numerous, large, isolated, dark brown patches, which 

 coalesce just over the flanks. The iinder suifaees of the wings are white, except 

 just along their edges where they are mottled with brown ; and the apices of the 

 long axillary feathers are brownish. The under tail coverts are deep grayish. 



1864.] 



