iSS6.] Brewster on PeaWs Petrel. 39 1 



the chin, throat, juguluin, central portion of breast and under tail-coverts ;* 

 sides and lower portion of breast finely mottled or vermiculated with graj- 

 ish-ash ; axillars, sides of body, crissuni, and anal region with numerous 

 broken, confused, but generally transverse, bars of plumbeous gray ; abdo- 

 men dark slaty plumbeous, the feathers just perceptibly tipped with gray, 

 giving the darker color a slightly hoary appearance. Above, with the 

 forehead, crown, occiput, back, scapulars, and rump dark bluish-ash, 

 darkest (with a slaty cast) on the rump, occiput, and ends of the longer 

 scapulars; feathers of the forehead rather broadly and conspicuously mar- 

 gined and tipped vvith white; those of the crown narrowly with grayish- 

 white; those of the occiput essentially plain; feathers of the back, as well 

 as the scapular coverts, broadly tipped with ashy white, giving the plu- 

 mage of these parts a scaled appearance ; tail faded brownish-ash, essentially 

 plain above, even when widely spread, although the outer three pairs of 

 feathers have concealed white spaces mottled with gray on their inner 

 webs, the white being most extended and purest on the outer pair and dim- 

 inishing so rapidly inward that on the fourth pair it is nearly wanting, 

 and on the central four feathers practically entirely so, these feathers 

 being perfectly plain and uniform on both webs nearly to their bases. 



The wings are difficult of description. On their under surfaces the ex- 

 posed (inner) webs of the primaries and secondaries are ashy-white to 

 within about an inch of their tips, which are light faded brown on both 

 webs. The middle and greater under-coverts are pure white with a silky 

 sheen ; the lesser under-coverts blackish slate, forming a narrow dark band, 

 bordered outwardly (or anteriorly) next the body by white, but about 

 midway between the body and the carpal joint spreading over the plumage 

 which lines the edge of the wing beneath, and from this point forward to 

 the ends of the under primary coverts, extending quite to the edge of the 

 wing. 



On the upper or outer surface the first primary is dark slaty brown, the 

 tenth pale faded brown with a hoary tinge ; the intermediate ones form a per- 

 fectly graduated, connecting series, each, beginning with the first, being 

 slightly paler and graj'er than the preceding one. The secondaries and 

 tertials are all uniform and rather darker than the darkest primary, but 

 still with obscure hoary on their outer webs. All the primaries and 

 secondaries have pure white spaces on their inner vanes, and basally, for a 

 varying but always short distance, all are white across both vanes. On 

 the outer vane the white comes rather abruptly to an end just below the 

 point reached by the tips of the overlapping primary coverts. On the 

 inner vane it diverges from the shaft a little beyond this point and extends 

 to within about an inch of the extremity of the feather, leaving a gradually 

 widening dusky space next the shaft. On the first primary this white space 

 ends apically in a long, acute point, formed and bounded on three sides 

 by the dark color which extends backward along the inner 4nargin of the 

 inner vane for nearly two inches. On each succeeding feather this dark 



* A few of the shorter under tail-coverts have plumbeous spots on bars. 



