353 Mr. O. Salyin— Critical 



lections, lias suggested most of these notes. Others will, I 

 trust, follow, as obscure points relating to this family become 

 clearer. 



-^-PUFFINUS CHLORORHYNCHUS. 



Pvffinus chlororhynchus, Less. Traite d^Orn. p. 612 (1831) ; 

 Puch. Rev. Zool. 1850, p. 633 ; Sharpe, Phil. Trans, clxviii. 

 p. 467; Eidgw. Man. N. Am. Birds, p. 62. 



ThieUus chlororhynchus, Bonap. Consp. Av. ii. p. 200 ; 

 Coues, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil. 1864, p. 123. 



Procellaria chlororhyncha, Schl. Mus. Pays-Bas, vi. Pro- 

 cellarice, p. 25. 



Puffinus sphenurusy Gould, Ann. & Mag. N. H. xiii. p. 365 

 (1844); id. Birds Austr. vii. pi. 58 ; Ridgw. Man. N.-Am. 

 Birds, p. 62. 



ThieUus sphenurus, Bp. et Coues, 11. cc. 



Procellaria sphenura, Schl. 1. c. 



Lesson's type of his P. chlororhynchus in the Paris Museum 

 was brought from Australia (Baie des Chiens Marins), so 

 Pucheran tells us, by Quoy and Gaimard in 1820. Those 

 writers who have attempted to separate it from P. sphenurus 

 of Gould attribute to it a more western range, extending from 

 Western Australia to the Mascarcne Islands and the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and reserve the name P. sphenurus for the 

 more eastern bird, giving its range " Australian Seas." 

 Gould's types of P. sphenurus, however, came from Hout- 

 mann's Abrolhos, off the coast of W. Australia, so that the 

 difference of habitat breaks down. I have compared speci- 

 mens from the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Rodriguez), 

 Raine's Islet (N.W. Australia) , Bird Islet (N.Australia), Nor- 

 folk I., Lord Howe'sl., Eimeo (Society Is.), and New Zealand, 

 and fail to see how any separation can be maintained. The 

 Mascarene birds have perhaps a rather stouter bill, the colour 

 of which in the skin is more of a fleshy yellow ; but these 

 differences seem to me to be of little importance, as inter- 

 mediate specimens occur. The slight difference in size is not 

 more than occurs in most birds having so wide a range. 

 Gould's figure represents a bird with a dark bill, but his 



