NATATORES. 445 



heart and liver I cannot believe ; yet it is said to do so in the 

 works of many ornithologists." — Ibis, 1865, p. 284. 



The adults have the entire plumage of a dark chocolate- 

 brown ; bill light horn-colour, the tip tinged with vinous ; 

 irides dark blackish brown ; legs blackish brown. 



Genus MAJAQUEUS, Reichenhach. 



Bonaparte adopted this name for the Procellaria cequinoc- 

 tialis and F. conspicillata — two robust birds differing consi- 

 derably from the species of the succeeding forms. The South 

 Atlantic, South Indian, and South Pacific Oceans are their 

 native haunts. 



Sp. 625. MAJAQUEUS CONSPICILLATUS, Gould. 

 Spectacled Petrel. 



Procellaria conspicillata, Gould in Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. 

 xiii. p. 363. 



larvata. Less. (Bonap.). 



Majaqueus conspicillatus, Bonap. Compt. Rend, de I'Acad. Sci., 1856. 



Procellaria conspicillata, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vii. 

 pi. 46. 



Although some ornithologists consider that I have com- 

 mitted an error in characterizing this bird as distinct from 

 the Procellaria ceqidnoctialis of Linnaeus, I am still of opinion 

 that it is not referable to that species ; at the same time it 

 must be admitted that it is most nearly allied to it ; the subject 

 is fraught with the more difficulty from the circumstance of 

 the white markings on the face not being always of the same 

 form in different individuals ; and from the gular region being 

 white in some instances, while in others it is black. In size the 

 two species are very similar, but all the specimens of the present 

 bird that I have seen have a much shorter and more robust bill 

 than the true M. cEquinoctialis, which moreover never has the 

 white mark around the eye, the throat only being white. 



