35S 



It is certain that the Petrels above described are not the only 

 species that frequent Ihe seas of India. Reference has already 

 been made in the account of Puffinu* chlororJii/nchus to a doubtful 

 species once obtained by Jerdon at Madras. Then Hume (S. P. ii, 

 p. 317) saw, near Preparis and the Cocos, on the 4th March, 1873, 

 several blue and white Petrels, probably a species of Prion. They 

 were known to the officers of the ship as " Whale Birds." A bird 

 known by the same name is said by Butler to occur on the Baluch- 

 istan coast (8. F. v, p. 304). Again it is extremely doubtful whether 

 all the small " Stormy Petrels " so "frequently seen in the upper 

 part of the Bay of Bengal (S. F. ii, p. 317) are Gceanites oceanicns 

 or Cymodroma melanogaster. I have a distinct recollection, when 

 on my way from Calcutta to Madras by steamer on one occasion, 

 about 1867., of seeing,- only a few yards away from the vessel, 

 several small Petrels that appeared to want the conspicuous white 

 rump of those two species, and my recollection is confirmed by a 

 note in pencil on the margin of my copy of Jerdon. It is far 

 from improbable that some kind of Oceanodroma, of which several 

 species occur in the North Pacific, may be found in the Bay of 

 Bengal. 



Lastly, there is the bird seen by Sundevall and identified by him 

 as Hctlodroma or Pdlecanoides urinatricc *. Jerdon (B. I. iii, p. 827), 

 who has been followed by Hume (Cat. no. 977) and Gates (B. B. ii, 

 p. 440), admits the species as Indian. The locality was also 

 given in Blyth's Catalogue, p. 295. The following is Sundevall's 

 account : 



" In the southern parts of the Bay of Bengal I saw several times 

 in December and January a bird which could hardly be anything 

 else than the above-mentioned (P. winatrue). The colour and form 

 were clearly distinguished through the telescope at less than 100 

 ells distance. It was blackish grey, beneath and under the wings 

 white, with projecting nostrils, and was but little larger than Alca 

 alle (the Little Auk), which it resembled in its exterior. T>vo or 

 three were commonly seen together resting on the water, from 

 which they occasionally arose and flapped with their wings like 

 ducks. They dived remarkably well and long, like Alca and Uria, 

 and flew heavily with a rapid motion of the wings for a short 

 distance close over the surface." 



That some bird not yet identified, probably a Petrel, was seen is 

 evident, but as no specimen was obtained it is premature to 

 identify this with a species of very weak powers of flight, and only 

 found, so far as is known, in latitudes considerably south of the 

 Equator. 



* Physiogr. Sallskapets Tidsk. i, p. 222 (1837) ; A. M. K. II. xix, p. 238. 



