476 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Genus PRO CELL ARIA, Linnaeus. 



The little tenants of the ocean, which we have known of 

 late years under the generic title of Thalassidroma, but for 

 which I believe the term Procellaria was first proposed, are 

 so universally dispersed, that they are found in all the seas 

 except those of the very high latitudes of both hemispheres. 

 The Australian avi-fauna is particularly rich in birds of this 

 form, inasmuch as no less than five distinct species frequent 

 the seas which wash the shores of that country. 



They have now been divided into several genera, P. pela- 

 gica and my P. nereis being a typical species of the restricted 

 genus Procellaria. 



Sp. 645. PROCELLARIA NEREIS, Gould. 

 Grey-backed Storm-Petrel. 



Thalassidroma nereis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part viii. p. 178. 

 Procellaria nereis, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., torn. ii. p. 196; Procellaria, 

 sp. 1. 



Thalassidroma nereis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vii. 

 pi. 64. 



During a calm which occurred on my passage from Hobart 

 Town to Sydney in May 1839, I obtained four examples of 

 this species of Petrel, and I subsequently observed it flying 

 about in considerable numbers near the eastern entrance 

 of Bass's Straits ; I also met with it on my passage home to 

 England in April 1840, between New South Wales and the 

 northernmost point of New Zealand ; further than this I have 

 little to communicate respecting it. 



The Procellaria nereis is a species readily distinguishable 

 from its congeners by the total absence of any white mark on 

 the rump, the want of which first drew my attention and 

 induced me to suspect it, as it subsequently proved to be, a 

 different species from any I had before seen ; my readers 



