136 ALLEN s NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



margin of the sternum is even ; pterygoid processes are absent ; 

 the manubrium of the forcula is long ; the coracoids are long, 

 comparatively narrow across the base, and slightly divergent ; 

 The second primary is the longest. (Cf. Salvin, torn. tit. p. 342.) 



THE TRUE STORM-PETRELS. SUB-FAMILY 

 PROCELLARIIN^;. 



The plumage of the Petrels is somewhat close- set and a 

 peculiar musky odour is perceptible in all of the species, both 

 large and small. The same smell attaches to the eggs, and 

 seems never to evaporate entirely. 



An interesting note on these birds has recently been pub- 

 lished by Mr. R. Drane, of Cardiff : " I am disposed to the 

 belief that the birds of this family do not enter the water as 

 they are assumed, and very naturally assumed, to do ; for I 

 have now had three species in confinement, Leach's Storm 

 Petrel, the Greater Shearwater, and the Manx Shearwater, 

 and, in each case, I find that when these birds really enter the 

 water, they make strenuous efforts to get out of it, and that, 

 succeeding, they are so drenched as to be incapable of flight. 

 This statement has been met by the suggestion that the 

 unnatural conditions of confinement effect a change in the 

 quality of the plumage, which might account for this satura- 

 tion. Remembering this, I immersed a Shearwater in the sea 

 within an hour or so of its capture, and the result was the 

 same. Be the explanation what it may, this fact remains, as 

 the result of repeated observation, that I cannot drench a Duck 

 or a Gull by immersion, and that I cannot immerse a Petrel 

 without drenching it. I have failed to tame any of these birds 

 or to induce them to take food spontaneously." 



The members of this sub-family have the following charac- 

 ters, which are set forth by Mr. Salvin in the work above 

 referred to: "Leg-bones shorter than the wing-bones; tarsus 

 never twice as long as the femur ; basal phalanx of the middle 

 toe shorter than the next two joints ; the keel of the sternum 

 entirely ossified ; tarsus covered in front with hexagonal scutes ; 

 claws sharp and compressed ; outer toe shorter than the middle 

 toe ; secondaries at least thirteen in number." 



Three genera are reprerented in the sub-family, of which 



