2 go Brewster on PeaWs Petrel. [July 



After carefully comparing them I am led to the following con- 

 clusions : (i) That .^^. Jisheri Ridgw. is perfectly distinct from 

 ,^^. g^iilaris Peale. (2) That the New York waif is equally dis- 

 tinct from y^. Jisheri. (3) That this New York bird may be 

 also distinct from y^. gularis. 



In referring it to yE gularis^ I ascribed the difference in color 

 of the two specimens to a difference of age, assuming that the 

 case afforded a fair parallel to that made out by Dr. Coues for 

 the closely related ^'E. viollis., which, according to the author 

 just named, has several well-defined progressive stages of plu- 

 mage, from the nearly uniform sooty or fuliginous condition of the 

 young bird, to the ashy-gray and white livery of the adult. 



Mr. Ridgway, however, has lately said* tliat "no fact in orni- 

 thology can be moi'e thoroughly established than that, with the 

 possible exception of the Albatrosses, tJie Petrels have no dis- 

 tinct progressive stages of plumage., the young assuming with 

 their fiist feathers the fully adult livery" ; an opinion which seems 

 to be shared by the best European authorities on Procellaridae. 



Granting this to be an established fact — I have no disposition 

 to dispute it — my former theory that the New York bird and 

 Peale's type o^ gularis represent different ages of the same spe- 

 cies must be, of course, abandoned. It is still possible to fall 

 back on a theory of dichromatism, and to assume that the ^'Estre- 

 latce. like certain of the Fulmars, have two phases, a dark or 

 fuliginous, and a light or grayish one. The fact that my bird 

 agrees so closelv with Peale's in every structural respect, and that 

 the difference between the two consists chieffy in the absence in 

 my specimen of the sooty wash which overlies most of the plu- 

 mage of the type, has made me hesitate to discard such an 

 apparently reasonable hypothesis. Indeed, I do not wholly dis- 

 card it, for I cannot help suspecting that it may turn out to be 

 the real solution of the problem ; but having no material by which 

 to either prove or disprove it, I merely call attention to it in 

 passing, and adopt what seems to be tlie only plain course, viz. : 

 that of naming and describing the New York bird as follows : — 



^strelata scalaris, nov. sp. — Scaled Petrel. 



Sp. Char. Adult. Sex—? (No. 5224, Coll. W. B., Mt. Morris, Living- 

 ston Co., New York, April, 18S0). Beneath white, immaculate onlj on 



* Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.. Vol. V, 1883, p. 658. 



