138 



July 12, 1832. 



Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., in the Chair. 



At the request of the Chairman, Mr. Arthur Strickland, of Boynton 

 near Burlington, Yorkshlre, exhibited a specimen,from his coUection, 

 of a Puffin shot by Mr. George Marvvood, jun., of Busby, " in the 

 middle of Augiist 1828, in a very stormy day, at the mouth of the 

 Tees : it was seen early in the morning, sitting on the water likę a 

 duck, and was shot as it was rising : its manner of flight was con- 

 sequently not noticed." 



After observing on the confusion in which our knovvledge of the 

 entire group of the Petrels is at present involved, in consequence of 

 the unsatisfactory descriptions of them contained in books, Mr. Strick- 

 land proceeded to statė, that the addition to the British Fauna which 

 he submitted to the examination of the Committee was apparently 

 referable to the Puffinus fuliginosus {Procellaria (Nectris) fuliginosus, 

 Kuhl). The descriptiou of this species given by M. Kuhl in his 

 ' Beitrage,' rests upon two unpublished dravvings, \vhich form part of 

 the valuable collection of Sir Joseph Banks, now deposited in the 

 British Museum, one of which is marked Procellaria fuliginosa by 

 Forster, and the uther Nectris fuliginosa by Solander, in vvhose MS. 

 Notės it is described under the latter name. The Proc. fuligi- 

 nosa of the šame MSS., though similar in size and colour, is entirely 

 difFerent, and at once distinguishable by having the bili short and 

 povverful, and the nostrils in a raised tube, likę the true Procellarice. 

 The Proc. fuliginosa, Lath., is also altogether distinct, being the Tha- 

 tassidroma Leachii, Vigors : and the only 'lescription in the ' General 

 History of Birds' which at all resembles the present species, is that 

 of the Proc. grisea, a species distinct from that described under the 

 šame name by Linnseus. 



Mr. Strickland stated, that he could detect no differences betvveen 

 his specimen and the drawings referred to, except that the latter repre- 

 sented a bird of somewhat larger size, and having the lo\ver parts of 

 the breast of a rather lighter colour. These differences were also 

 observable on comparison with an apparently original specimen of 

 Sir Joseph Banks's bird, preserved in spiri', vvhich he had ascertained 

 to exist in the .Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. He added, 

 that Sir Joseph Banks's specimens, described by Dr. Solander, were 

 obtained in the Southern Pacific Ocean, in various latitudes and 

 longitudes, extending nearly from the coast of Chili to that of Van 

 Diemen's Land; but remarked, that there was reason to believe, 

 that birds of an equally distaut locality had, in more instances than 

 one, reached this country. 



In its distinct and very little raised nostrils, the bird in question 

 agrces with the Shearivater Petrei, Pitffijius Angloriun, Ray : it has 



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