628 THE BLACK-CAPPED PETREL. 
No. 313. 
BLACK-CAPPED PETREL. 
A. O. U. No. [98.] A&strelata hasitata (Kuhl.). 
Description.—Adult: Head and neck (excepting top of head), upper tail- 
coverts, basal half of tail, and entire under parts, pure white; remaining upper 
parts, including top of head, brownish dusky, blackening on wings and tail; the 
feathers of back, etc., more or less margined with lighter brown; the sides of 
breast sometimes tinged with brownish gray. Length about 15.00 (381.); wing 
11.60 (294.6); tail about 5.00 (127.), graduated tor less than halt its length; 
bill 1.35 (34.3); tarsus 1.42 (36.1). 
Recognition Marks.—Size of Common Tern; white below, dusky above; 
upper tail-coverts and base of tail white; cap blackish. 
Nesting unknown. 
General Range.—Warmer parts of the Atlantic Ocean, straying to Florida, 
Virginia, New York, Vermont, and Ontario. Also England and France. 
Range in Ohio.—Accidental near Cincinnati. 
IF a company of ghosts were suddenly to “materialize” before us, make 
strange gestures and depart silently, leaving only their chilly shrouds behind 
them for mementoes of their visit, we should know about as much of their 
whence and whither, their “‘life histories,” in short, as we know now of these 
strange wanderers from the trackless deep. Three of them were picked up 
wing-weary and half-starved, on the Ohio River near Cincinnati one day in 
October, 1898, and are now preserved in Cincinnati museums. ‘Their presence 
was due to a strong east gale which had blown them inland far from their 
native mid-ocean. Not even the habitat of the species is clearly known, altho 
it is surmised to be the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. ‘The bird is cer- 
tainly a great wanderer, specimens having been taken in England, France, 
Hayti, Australia, etc., as well as upon our own Atlantic coasts. 
No. 314. 
HOLBOELL GREBE. 
A. O. U. No. 2. Colymbus holbeellii (Reinh.). 
Description.—Adult in nuptial plumage! Head with short dense occipital 
crest, heaviest on sides and squarely cut off behind; top of head, including crest, 
ridge of neck behind, and upper parts, very deep hair-brown, or brownish black 
with a silky sheen, pure on head and neck and wings, with slight edgings of dull 
buffy and ochraceous on back; primaries not different; a large white patch on 
central secondaries( recalling the speculum of ducks) ; throat and sides of head 
pale ashy gray, becoming white on borders; neck in front and on sides bright 
