OCEANITIS OCEANICA. 763 
distinguish it from any of the other species inhabiting South 
Africa. It is found at Verloren Vley ; and Mr. Dumbleton informs 
us that he shot a specimen at Victoria. Sir Andrew Smith states 
that it dives with great facility. 
In the winter of 1858, great flights of these birds, and of Aythia 
capensis, appeared in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, and were 
shot in considerable numbers on the Cape Flats, and on all the 
vleys of the neighbourhood. Since that date only a few stray 
specimens have made their appearance at odd times; and it may 
be reckoned as one of our scarcest ducks. Mr. Ayres observes : 
“The specimen sent I shot in December whilst standing up to my 
middle in water and mud in a very extensive lagoon on the borders 
of the Vaal River. It kept constantly diving, and did not attempt 
to fly; but so quick were its motions, remaining not a second 
above water, that I had the greatest difficulty in shooting it. The 
belly was extraordinarily large, and the stomach contained water- 
snails.” 
Upper parts, chestnut-brown ; under parts and wings, brown; 
head and upper parts of neck, black ; bill blue; tail-feathers very 
narrow and rigid. Length, 17”; wing, 6’ 6’’; tail, 84". The 
young male is beautifully mottled, and the female is generally of 
an umber-brown colour, with the chin and sides of the head clear 
white. 
Mr. Ayres gives the following soft-parts :—The irides were 
brown, the upper mandible black, the lower pale, tarsi and feet 
dusky ash-colour. 
Fig. Smith, Ill. Zool. S. Afr. pl. 108. 
Fam. PROCELLARIIDA. 
737. Ocxranitis ocEanica (Kuhl). Wilson’s Petrel. 
Thalassidroma wilsoni, Layard, B.S. Afr. p. 359. 
The accompanying description is from a specimen killed in Table 
Bay on the 29th April, 1865, by Mr. L. C. Layard, who informs us 
that he saw several more of the same species. We procured several 
specimens off L’Agullas Bank in 1856, since which time, until 
Mr. L. C, Layard found it in Table Bay, we had not seen them 
on the coast. 
