CAPPED PETREL. 645 



as to present, except at the edges of the patch, which is 

 nearly circular, a uniform surface of the latter colour ; in 

 front and below the eye are a few greyish-black feathers 

 extending over the ear-coverts ; the orbits are surrounded 

 with a ring of sepia-brown feathers. The forehead, face, 

 neck, breast, belly, sides, and under tail-coverts, are nearly 

 pure white, but there are also a few dark feathers on the 

 flanks. The back and shoulders are covered with brown- 

 ish-grey and blackish-brown feathers, the former appear- 

 ing to have been but lately assumed, but many of the 

 latter are sedgy and worn at the edges : all these feathers 

 are white at the base, but that colour does not show on 

 the surface. The rump and upper tail-coverts are white, 

 the feathers of the latter elongated. The tail is rounded, 

 and consists of twelve feathers, the outer pair white, edged 

 and broadly tipped with blackish-brown, the next four 

 pair are similarly coloured, but only slightly edged, the 

 tips of each pair being darker as they approach the 

 middle ; the shafts of the quills in all these are white ; 

 the middle pair of quills are brownish-black nearly all 

 their length, their basal being white, and have their shafts 

 corresponding in colour to their webs. The wing-coverts 

 are blackish-brown, bordered with a lighter shade of that 

 colour, the borders of the middle and lower coverts being 

 so broad as to appear like two light- coloured bars across 

 the wing; the quill-feathers are blackish-brown, with 

 shafts of the same, the first quill-feather being the 

 longest ; the under surface of the wings, as far as can be 

 seen, is white. The naked parts of the tibiae, the tarsi, 

 and the basal halves of the toes and interdigital mem- 

 branes appear to have been dusky yellow, the rest of the 

 feet and claws are black. The specimen was a female, 

 and when newly killed the irides were hazel brown.'* 

 From the name of " White-headed Petrel " given to 



