NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELnilA. 159 



below is lighter and more brownish ; on the head has a faiat cinereous wash ; 

 on the greater wing-coverts is rather paler and grayer.* 



Dimensions. Chord of culnien 0-85. Tarsus slightly longer, -90 to 1-00 ; 

 middle toe and claw 1-lC; outer do. about the same; inner do. O-tio. Wing 

 8-00; tail 4-50; graduation of lateral feathers 1-75. 



This liitle spef'ies has been very variously arranged in the series by different 

 authors, as will be seen by the synonyms which head this article. In my 

 mind there is no doubt that Dr. Schlegel has correctly indicated its affinities 

 io placing it in intimate relation with, and next after aterrima Verr., albeit he 

 retains it in his somewhat extensive "genus" Procellaiia. My owu reasons 

 for referring it to ^^«<re^aia will be found in my remarks under the head of 

 that genus. 



I am not enabled to state positively what was the first specific name applied 

 to this species, of the three which head this article. Bonaparte gives prece- 

 dence to columbina ; but MM. Webb and Berthelot, in giving this name quote 

 onjinho, Heineken, (1829) as above, which must therefore have been published 

 anterior to their own appellation columbina. The title page of the work where 

 the latter name appears, bears the date " 1836 — 44." Dr. Scblegel and most 

 other writers give j)riori'y to Bidwcri of Jardine and Selby's Illustrations, a 

 work extending over a series of years. It is figured in volume ii. pi. 65 : but 

 the title page bears no date. If not published anterior to 18'29 theu the name 

 anjinho Heineken has priority. 



J^sTRELATA Macgillivrayi (Gray) Coues. 



Thalassidrnma (Buhceria) Macgillivrayi, G. R. Gray, Cat. Birds Isl. Pacif. 1859, 

 p. 56. Spec, in Britsh Museum, from the Feejee Islands, (Ngau.) 



"Like T. Bitlweri, but with the bill rather larger; and it is without the 

 sooty brown on the wings." [Gray,] 



A species with which I am only acquainted through the above cited very 

 brief indication. 



[Note. — Just as these sheets are leaving my hands for the printer's I learn 

 through the kindness of toy friend Dr. P. L. Sclater, of London, of the identi- 

 fication of the "Blue Mountain Duck " of Gosse's Birds of Jamaica. It appears 

 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society as Pterodroma Carribxi, Carte. I 

 was surprised at learning that it is a '■^Pterodroma," as 1 had confidently 

 anticipated that it would prove to be one of the Prioneis ; possibly however 

 bemg prejudiced by the following note upon it by Richard Hill, Esq.f "From 

 the dimensions of our bird, 13 inches long, by some 26 inches in the extent of 

 wing, and from the proportions and character of the bill and nasal tubes, and 

 the grooved mandible, I should say the Blue movntain petrel must be classed 

 with the Prion of Lacepede, the genus Pachi/ptila of Illiger, the type being the 

 rroccllaria vitlata, * * Our bird has a triple row of palatal teeth." etc] 



PAGODROMA Bonap. 



Procellaria sp. Gmelin et Auctorum. 



Thalassoica, sp. Reichenbach. 



Poffodroma, Bonap. C^^nsp. Av. 1855, ii. p. 192. — Type Proc. nivea Gmel. 



The bill is very short, being less than half as long as the skull ; and ex- 

 ceedingly small, weak, slender and compressed throughout, its base being 

 much higher than broad. The lateral outlines are straight, rapidly converg- 

 ing to a narrow, elongated, rather slender, very convex, moderately decurved 

 and hooked unguis, whose convexity begins immediately at the termination of 

 the nasal cn.se. The lateral sulcus is short, and very oblique. The outline of 

 lower mandible is straight; of gonys a little concave, the angle of the sym- 



1866.] 



♦Description from specs, in the Philada. Acad, and Mus. Smithson. 

 t A week at Poi l-Koyal. By Richard Hill. Montego Eay, 1855. 



