402 



THE TEUE-NOSEI) SWIMMERS - IT BIN ARES. 



about the middle of March, he did not see one of these birds. The same man once 

 took seven of this species alive, and released them in the English Channel. They 

 had been kept in a large tub, and fed with soft pork. 



Mr. Layard mentions meeting with this bird, in November, in his voyage from 

 England to Capetown, in lat. 3° 2' N. Neither he nor any one of the officers of the 

 ship had ever before seen it so far to the north. 



Captain Hutton, in a subsequent reference to this species (" Ibis,'' 1871), mentions 

 his finding it common on the Chatham Islands — a group lying five hundred miles 

 east of New Zealand. 



Mr. E. M. Sperling gives as the northern range of this species from 27° to 25° S., 

 on the western coast of Africa, and from 26° to 25° on the eastern, and 24° on the 

 eastern coast of South America. Captain P. E. King (" Proc. Zool. Soc," 1834) 

 writes that on his voyage from the meridian of the Island of Tristan d'Acunha to 

 that of the Island of St. Paul, in about 40° south latitude, he was daily surrounded by 

 a multitude of oceanic birds of the Petrel tribe, this species being the most abundant. 



Genus HALOCYPTENA, Coues. 

 Halocyptena, Coues, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sei. Philad. March, 1864, 78 (type, //. microsoma, Coues). ' 



Char. Size very small ; tail a little more than half as long as the wing, graduated ; tarsus 

 a little longer than the middle toe and claw (not quite twice the culmen) ; plumage uniform 

 dusky. 



This genus embraces but a single species, H. microsoma, Codes, which is, with one exception, 

 the smallest of the family. 



Halocyptena microsoma. 



WEDGE TAILED PETREL; LEAST PETREL. 



Halocyptena microsoma, Coues, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sri. Philad. March, 1864, 79 (Lower California) ; Key, 

 1872, 328 ; Check last, 1873, no. 586 ; ed. 2, 1S82, no. 821. — Ridgw. Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, 

 no. 720. 



Hab. Coast of Lower California. 



Sp. Char. Adult: Fuliginous-black, lighter and more brown on the lower parts, middle and 

 greater wing-coverts, and anterior portion of the head. Bill and feet uniform black. 



Wing, 4.80 inches ; tail, 2.50, its graduation, .40 ; culmen, .45 ; tarsus, .85 ; middle toe, .60. 





I have no information in regard to the general habits of this species, nor am I 

 aware that the extent of its distribution is known. It is assigned to the Pacific 

 fauna of North America, in consideration of the capture of a single example, taken in 

 May, 1861, near San Jose del Cabo, in Lower California. This specimen, an adult 

 female, is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution (No. 11420). 



