OCEANITID.E FEEGETTA 461 



779. Garrodia nereis. Garrod's Petrel. 



Thallassidroma nereis, Gould, P. Z. S. 1840, p. 178; id. Bds. Austr. 



vii, pi. 64 (1845). 



Garrodia nereis, Forbes, P.Z.S., 1881, p. 735 ; Salvin, Cat. B. M. xxv, 

 p. 361 (1896). 



Description. Adult. General colour above slaty-black, 'darkest 

 on the head, and becoming lighter on the rump and .upper tail- 

 coverts, which are silvery-grey ; tail-feathers also silvery-grey 

 broadly tipped with black ; median wing-coverts ashy-grey, these, 

 as well as some feathers of the back and upper tail-coverts very 

 narrowly edged with white on the tips ; below from the breast 

 to the under tail-coverts, including the inner under wing-coverts, 

 white ; flanks streaked with grey. Bill and legs black. 



Length 7'25 ; wing 5-25 ; tail 2-5 ; culmen -52 ; tarsus 1-24 ; 

 middle toe -9. This Petrel can be recognised by its strongly 

 scutellated tarsus and by its white underparts. 



Distribution This little Petrel was first discovered by Gould 

 in Bass Straits between Australia and Tasmania; it appears to be 

 spread over the greater part of the Southern Ocean, as examples 

 have been met with in the Australian and New Zealand seas, as 

 well as near the Falkland Islands and Kerguelen. It was found 

 breeding on the latter island by Dr. Kidder, the naturalist of the 

 United States Transit of Venus Expedition of 1874-5 (Bull. U.S. 

 Nat. Mus., No. 3, p. 16), and eggs have also been obtained on 

 Chatham Island to the east of New Zealand by Mr. H. 0. Forbes. 



There is an example, unfortunately without a recorded history, 

 in the collections of the South African Museum. As it was 

 probably obtained in the Cape seas, and at any rate the bird will 

 doubtless be found within our limits, I have included it here 

 in this work. 



Genus III. FREGETTA. 



Type. 

 Fregetta, Bp. Compt. Rend., xli. p. 1113 (1856)... F. melanogaster. 



Bill compressed and rather strongly hooked ; nostrils opening 

 by a single rounded aperture at the end of a somewhat upturned 

 tube lying on the culmen ; no trace of a septum externally ; wings 

 long and pointed, the second primary the longest, the secondaries 

 only ten in number; tail of twelve feathers, square or deeply 



