PROCJSLLA.RIIDJ;. 353 



separate family, whilst Forbes*, to whom we owe by far the best 

 account hitherto published of their anatomy, only assigned distinct 

 family rank to Oceanites and its allies. Seebohmt and Salving 

 do not recognize this distinction, but attach weight to the presence 

 or absence of basipterygoid processes, and the last-named divides 

 the order into four families, of which Procellariidce and Diomedeidce 

 (Stormy Petrels and Albatrosses) want the processes, whilst Puf- 

 finidm and Pdeca noidece possess them, the other distinctions being 

 founded on characters of the nostrils, sternum, furcula, coracoids, 

 and primaries. These families may be worthy of distinction, but 

 there is so much doubt that, in arranging the few species of which, 

 in each case, from one to three specimens have been obtained in 

 the seas around India, the simple plan of leaving all the Indian 

 genera in one family is most convenient. 



Family PROCELLAHIID^l. 



To this family, as above stated, all known Indian genera of 

 Petrels are here referred. They are four in number. 



Key to the Genera. 



a. Tarsus much longer than middle toe ; Indian 



species small, wing 1 not exceeding 7 in. ; 



nostrils with a single anterior orifice. 



a'. Basal phalanx not half length of mid-toe . . OCEANITKS,P. 353. 

 l> . Basal phalanx of mid-toe flattened, more 



than half length CYMODROMA, 



b. Tarsus shorter than middle toe ; wing in Indian [p. 354. 



species exceeding 7 in. 

 c'. Nostrils separated at orifice by a broad 



septum PUFFINUS, p. 355. 



d' Nostrils not separate at orifice, but divided 



inside DAPTION, p. 357. 



Genus OCEANITES, Keys. & Bias., 1840. 



The small birds commonly called Stormy Petrels or Mother 

 Carey's Chickens, of which the Atlantic Procellaria pelagica is 

 the best known, have been divided into several genera, the present 

 being one. In it the bill is slight and shorter than the head, the 

 orifice of the combined nostrils single ; wings very long, with the 

 2nd quill longest ; the tail moderate, the outer rectrices slightly 



* ' Challenger' Reports, Zool. iv, pt. xi, p. 1. 

 t Classification of Birds, p. 34 ; Suppl. p. 15. 

 J Cat. B. M. xxr, p. 342. 

 VOL. IV. 2 A. 



