426 Scientific Notices. — Procellarice. 



Description. General colour deep sooty black ; vent each 

 side, and upper tail coverts totally white ; primaries and tail deep 

 black ; greater wing coverts, and some of the secondaries, tipped 

 with whitish ; bill five eights of an inch long, black ; feet black 

 with a large, oblong, yellow spot on the membranes. Total length 

 nearly seven inches. 

 Sexes alike in colour. 



Propagation. Breeds according to Wilson, in great numbers 

 on the Bahama and the Bermuda Islands ; and in some places on 

 the coast of East Florida and Cuba. Like the bank swallows 

 they breed in communities and make their nests in the holes and 

 cavities of the rocks, above the sea. They are said to feed their 

 young only at night, being during the day occupied in wandering 

 over the ocean in quest of food." 



Plates are annexed of this species, as also of P. Leachii and 

 pelagica ; from which and from the descriptions given of the four 

 species, P. Wihonii may be thus at once distinguished. Its tail 

 which is nearly even, differs from that of P. Leachii which is 

 forked, and those of P pelagica and oceanica which are entirely 

 even. In size it exceeds P. Leachii nearly one fourth, P. oceanica 

 somewhat more, and P. pelagica at least one third. The length 

 of the tarsi aho in which it agrees with P. oceanica, exceeds that 

 of the other two in a similar proportion. In the colour of the 

 membrane which unites the toes, and which is black with a large 

 oblong yellow spot, it differs from all the rest, where the same 

 membrane is entirely black. And a striking difference is per- 

 ceptible in the structure of the bill, the tube in which the nostrils 

 are united being slightly curved upwards, and forming an angle 

 with the culmen at a short distance from its apex, while in the 

 other three species the same tube runs parallel with the culmen, 

 and is united to the bill the whole way. 



In their geographical distribution, P. J Vilsonii appears confined 

 to the western shores of the Atlantick, and P. pelagica to the 

 European, while P. Leachii is common to both. P. oceanica is 

 restricted to the shores of the Pacifick ocean. V» 



