Notes on the Procellariidse. 357 



In his recently published ' Manual of North American 

 Birds/ p. GO, Mr. Ridgway calls this bird " the Black-vented 

 Shearwater/^ a name which may still be retained for the 

 bird of the Californian coasts when Dr. Coues's title, 

 P. opisthomelas, is restored to it. 



-' PUFFINUS OBSCURUS. 



Dusky Petrel, Lath. Gen. Syn. vi. p. 416. 



Procellaria obscura, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 559 ; Lath. Ind. 

 Orn. ii. p. 828. 



A skin, said to have come from New Zealand, in our col- 

 lection belongs to the larger form of this species. It agrees 

 with one from Manua, Samoa Islands, except that the 

 crissum is white in the middle to its extremity, the sides alone 

 being dusky. In the Samoa bird the central feathers of the 

 crissum are dusky tipped with white. These differences can 

 hardly be considered specific, seeing that considerable varia- 

 tion prevails in this respect when a large series of birds is 

 examined. The smallest birds with the darkest crissum that 

 I have seen are from the Pelew Islands. 



-^-PUFFINUS ASSIMILIS. 



Puffinus assimilis, Gould, P. Z. S. 1837, p. 18G ; id. B. 

 Austr. vii. pi. 59> 



Puffinus nuyax, Solander, MS. ; Gould, Handb. B. Austr. 

 ii. p. 458; Coues, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil. 1864, p. 141. 



Gould^s specimens were obtained on Norfolk I. ; but he 

 remarks that he saw numerous examples flying oft' the north- 

 eastern end of New Zealand. J. MacGillivray found this 

 species at Raoul I,, one of the Kermadec Group, and Sir W. 

 Buller has a specimen from Little Barrier I. 



P. assimilis may at once be distinguished from P. ob- 

 scurus by the colour of the primary quills, which are white 

 for about two thirds of the outer portion of the inner web, 

 except towards the tip. 



ffisTRELATA HERALDICA, Sp. UOV. 



Supra fusca, dorsi plumis vix obscure griseo limbatis, fronte 

 et genis albis fusco intermixtis ; corpore subtus albo, 

 pectore (anguste), cervicis latcribus et hypochondriis 



