480 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



It is a bird of powerful flight, and pats the surface of the 

 rising waves more frequently than any other species that 

 came under my notice, or perhaps the great length of its legs 

 rendered this action more conspicuous ; its habits and general 

 economy are of course very similar to those of the other 

 members of the genus. 



All the plumage deep sooty black, with the exception of 

 the upper tail-coverts and flanks, which are snow-white ; bill, 

 legs, and feet black. 



Total length 7 J inches ; bill f ; wing 6 ; tail 3 ; tarsi If ; 

 middle toe and nail IJ. 



Sp. 648. PREGETTA GRALLARIA. 



White-bellied Storm-Petrel. 



Procellaria fregata, Kiihl, Brit. Zool. Mon. Proc, tab. 10. fig. 2. 



grallaria, Vieill. Ency. Meth., part i. p. 344. 



Thalassidroma oceanica, Bonap. Gen. et Syn. Am. Birds in Ann. Lye. 



New York, vol. ii. p. 449. 

 Fregetta grallaria^ Bonap. Consp. Gen, Av., torn. ii. p. 197, Fregetta, 



sp. 2. 

 Thalassidroma leucogaster, Gould in Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 



vol. xiii. p. 367. 



Thalassidroma leucogaster, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii. 

 pi. 63. 



This bird is about the same size as the Fregetta melano- 

 gaster^ but possesses two characters by which it may at all 

 times be distinguished from it : namely, the total absence 

 of black down the centre of the abdomen, and the shortness 

 of its toes. I observed it to be very generally distributed over 

 the South Indian Ocean, and I have reason to believe that 

 it ranges over all the temperate latitudes between the Cape of 

 Good Hope and Cape Horn, and it is not unlikely that it 

 may inhabit similar latitudes in the South Atlantic. I killed 

 specimens of a nearly allied species within the tropics of the 



