319. 
812, 
776 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —LONGIPENNES — TUBINARES. 
tarsus 3.70; middle or outer toe and claw re inner do. 4.00. Wing 19.00-20.00; tail about 
6.50. Pacifie coast of N. Am., abundant. 
PHEBE'TRIA. (Gr. doi8yrpia, phoibetria, a soothsayer, presager.) BLACK ALBATROSS. 
Bill comparatively slender, strongly compressed, with sharp culmen; side of under mandible 
with a long colored groove. Frontal feathers forming a deep acute reéntrance on culmen; 
a long acute salience on side of lower mandible. Nostrils low and strict. Tail cuneate, 
contained twice in the length of wing. Plumage uniformly dark. One species. 
P. fuligino’sa, (Lat. fuliginosa, sooty. Fig. 523.) Soory ALBArRoss. Bill with shape 
and outline of feathers as above said; chord of culmen 4.00-4.50; height of bill at base 1.50, 
at hook 1.00; width at base 0.75; from feathers on side of upper mandible to tip 3.50, ditto 
lower mandible 2.50. Wing 20.00-22.00; tail 10.00-11.00, graduated 3.50-4.50; tarsus about 
3.00; middle toe and claw 4.75, outer do. 4.50, inner do. 4.00. Plumage ordinarily uniform 
sooty-brown ; quills and tail blackish with white shafts; eyelids white; bill black, with 
long yellow (perhaps in life pink or red) groove: feet pale or flesh-color, drying yellow. 
In some cases the plumage lightens to a clearer more ashy-gray coloration on various parts. 
The head and neck frequently washed with rusty-yellow. Pacific ocean at large; off coast 
of N. Am. 
75. Subfamily PROCELLARIINA: Petrels. 
Nostrils united in one double-barrelled tube laid horizontally on the culmen at base. 
Hallux present, though it may be minute. Five groups of petrels may be distinguished, 
although they grade into each other; four of them are abundantly represented on our coasts. 
The fulmars are large gull-like species (one of them might be taken for a gull were it not 
for the nostrils), usually white with a darker mantle, the tail large, well formed (of 14-16 
feathers), the nasal case prominent, with a thin partition. They shade into the group of 
which the genus Wstrelata is typical, embracing a large number of medium-sized species, 
chiefly of Southern seas, in which the bill is short, stout, very strongly hooked, with prominent 
nasal case; the tail rather long, usually graduated. The shearwaters (Puffinus) have the 
bill longer than usual, comparatively slender, with short low nasal case, obliquely truncate 
at the end, and the partition between the nostrils thick; the tail short and rounded; the 
wings extremely long; the feet large. The elegant little ‘‘ Mother Carey’s chickens” or 
“‘stormy petrels” (‘‘ Thalassidroma” of authors; Procellaria proper ‘and its relatives) are 
a fourth group, marked by their small size, slight build, and other characters; their flight 
is peculiarly airy and flickering, more like that of a butterfly than of ordinary birds; they 
are almost always seen on wing, appear to swim little if any, and some, if not all, breed 
in holes in the ground, apparently like bank swallows. Like other petrels they gather in 
troops about vessels at sea, often following their course for many miles, to pick up the refuse 
of the cook’s galley. Some of them, as the species of Oceanites, have remarkably long legs, 
with fused scutella, flat obtuse claws, and the hallux exceedingly minute; in the rest, the 
feet are of an ordinary character. The exotic genus Prion typifies a fifth group, of five or 
six species; here the bill is expanded, and furnished with strong lamine, like a duck’s; the 
colors are bluish and white. 
Analysis of Genera. 
Fulmars, with prominent nasal tube, vertically truncate and with thin partition; under mandible not 
hooked at end. Length 16.00 or more. 
Tail 16-feathered!,Tength about 3 feet 2. 2 5, 6 eee Ye ym miele « |. « Ossifraga, 1320 
Tail 14-feathered. Length 15-20 inches. 
Bill very stout, much shorter than tarsus. . .......=.+.- +... =. Fulmarus 321 
Bill slenderer, little shorter than tarsus . . . . Priocelia 322 
Petrels, with nasal tubes as before, the bill very stout and strongly Hotes Tength 10. 00 to 16.00. 
Plumage spotted above, white below . . . » + « « © Daptium 323 
Plumage uniformly dark above, and white putea or, lentizely filigintous 2 2 * © « Mstreiatin’ S24 
a 
