PROCELLARIID.E — THE PETRELS — CYMOCHOREA. 411 



the larger circumference is a faint ring, almost always apparent, of fine reddish 

 clottings. These eggs are quite fragile and delicate, and measure from 1.25 to 1.40 

 inches in length, and from .92 to .95 of an inch in their greatest breadth. The egg 

 of this species is an almost exact miniature of that of Diomedea exulans. 



Cymochorea melania. 



THE BLACK PETREL. 



Procellaria melania, Bonap. Compt. Rend. XXVIII. 1854, 662. 



Thalassidroma melania, Bonap. Consp. II. 1856, 196. 



Cymochorea melania, Coues, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sri. Philad. 1864, 76 ; Key, 1872, 329 ; Check List, 1873, 



no. 589. 

 Cymochorea melcena, Ridgw. Nora. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 724. — Coues, 2d Check List, 1882, 



uo. 824. 



Hab. South Pacific Ocean, including the coast of Lower California. 



Sp. Char. Adult: Fuliginous-dusky, lighter and browner beneath ; middle and greater wing- 

 coverts and outer webs of tertials light grayish brown ; remiges, larger scapulars, and tail, blackish 

 dusky : upper tail-coverts fuliginous, like the back. Bill, legs, and feet, entirely black. 



Length, about 7.50 inches ; wing, 6.80 ; tail, 3.90, depth of its fork, 1.20 ; culmen, .60 ; tarsus, 

 1.20 ; middle toe, 1.00. 



I can find no account of the general habits of this species, nor any indication of 

 the area of its distribution or resort. It is said to be a visitor of the coasts of Cali- 

 fornia, Oregon, and Washington Territory ; but so far as can be ascertained, there is 

 no positive evidence of the capture of a single specimen in that region ; certainly not 

 since 1854. Prince Bonaparte, in his Xotes on the Birds collected by M. A. Delatt$e 

 in his Voyage between Nicaragua and California, and in which he first describes this 

 bird as a new species, assumes, apparently without any evidence, that it belongs to 

 the Californian fauna, and expresses some surprise that it should have escaped pre- 

 vious explorers on that coast. That it should not since have been met with is a strong 

 indication that it does not belong to our fauna. 



Cymochorea homochroa. 



THE ASHY PETREL. 



Cymochorea homochroa, Coues, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad. March, 1S64, 77 (Farallone Islands, coast 

 of California) ; Key, 1872, 329 ; Check List, 1S73, no. 590, ed. 2, 1882, no. 825. — Ridgw. 

 Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 725. 



Tlmlassidroma melania, LAwr.. in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 830 (not of Bonap. 1857). — Baird, 

 Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 643. 



