630 Dr. R. W. SlmfelcU on the 



remains, publishing them in advance of the memoir as a 

 Avhole. In doing this, it will not be necessary to publish 

 any of the plates I have prepared to illustrate the bones 

 of these new species, as they — there are many of them — 

 will all appear in due course in the aforesaid memoir, which 

 required many weeks of daily and continuous labour to 

 complete. 



The material for the new species, descinptions of which 

 are given below, belongs chiefly to the collectors and to the 

 American IMuseum of Natural History of New York City — 

 possibly it may now all be in the hands of the latter 

 institution. The borrowed material which I used for 

 comparative purposes came from numerous sources, and it 

 is fully acknowledged elsewhere. 



PuflBnus mcgalli, sp. nov. 



Recent Epoch. 



(Figured in the original memoir on pi. vii. fig. 29, <and pi. viii. fig. 36.) 



Based on an almost perfect sternum of an adult individual 

 discovered in the bird-bone caves of Bermuda. 



Upon comparing this stei-uum with the sterna of other 

 Shearwaters, it at once becomes evident that it belonged to 

 a species of Puffinus of moderate size, and probably possessed 

 characters in its skeleton agreeing, in all respects, with those 

 of that genus, as the osteological characters of all known 

 typical members of this group of birds are in close agree- 

 ment, the mere matter of size being ail we have, in some 

 instances, to distinguish them. This being true — the 

 material before us for comparison being in sufficient 

 quantity and the sexes and ages well represented — this 

 matter of size must be given due weight in the matter of 

 determining new species, whether these species be existing 

 and new to science, or extinct and heretofore undescribed. 



This sternum belonged to a bird that in life was con- 

 siderably larger than the existing Puffinus Iherminieri, as 

 the length of this bone in the former measures, from the 

 anterior tip of the manubrium to the extreme posterior 

 point of the mid-xiphoidal process, 5 '8 centimetres, while 



