Q2 Brewster on a Petrel new to North America. 



New York. One of the laborers while ploughing an old corn- 

 field, noticed it running in a freshly-turned furrow and despatched 

 it with a stick. It was apparently exhausted, for it made no 

 attempt to escape. This was early in April, 1880. probably 

 not far from the fifth of the month, as I find its reception recorded 

 on Mr. Knowlton's books as April 10. A letter afterwards re- 

 ceived from Mr. Smith confirms all of these facts, but adds noth- 

 ing of interest, save that the farm '"comprises what are known 

 as fiats, lying along the Genesee River, about forty miles south of 

 Lake Ontario." 



So much for the details of its capture ; resting as they do on 

 the testimony of three different persons, who, at the time, were 

 not aware of the importance of the case, there can be no doubt 

 as to their entire authenticity. The specimen itself, through Mr. 

 Woodman's generosity, has recently come into my possession and 

 to a consideration of its relationship 1 now invite the reader's 

 attention. 



In Dr. Coues's invaluable monograph of the Petrels* ("Critical 

 Review of the Family Procellariida? : Part iv ; — Embracing the 

 yEstrelatea: and the Prioneae"), under the head of ^Sstrelata 

 mollis (p. 151), occurs the following paragraph: - 



" There is a specimen. No. 1^,706. in the Smithsonian Museum 

 from the Antarctic Ocean, by Mr. T. R. Peale. which, with the 

 size and general appearance of mollis differs as follows : The 

 under surfaces of the wings are. except just along the edges, 

 purely and uninterruptedly white ; as much so as in Cookii. The 

 inner vanes of all the primaries, instead of being simply duller 

 and grayer than the outer, have trenchantly defined pure white 

 areas ; these white spaces occupy the whole of the webs at the 

 base ; as they extend more towards the apex they become less 

 wide, leaving a narrow space of dark color along the inside of 

 the shafts ; apically they terminate with an acutely pointed outline, 

 which stretches towards the tips of the feather, and is bounded 

 internally and externally by dark colored portions of the feather. 

 The general pattern is exactly that seen in the primaries of most 

 Lari; and the definition of the two colored areas is as strict. 

 In other respects the bird is like quite a young mollis, being dark 

 colored both above and below ; but the tint of the clouding below 

 is more intensely sooty than in any specimen of typical mollis I 



* Proc. Phil. Acad., May, 1866. 



