94 Brewster ou a Petrel i/ezv to North America. 



with the excellent description of mollis given by Dr. Cones, is 

 quite sufficient. The peculiar marking of the primaries in gu- 

 laris\ now confirmed by this second specimen, would alone be 

 conclusive, but in addition. I find certain structural differences 

 which were apparently overlooked by Dr. Cones. The tail of 

 <li//aris is shorter and much less decidedly rounded than is that 

 of mollis. This difference is best shown by the graduation of 

 the rectrices. For mollis Dr. Coues gives the graduation as 1.30 

 (the specimen before me measures 1 .05, but the bird is in a moulting 

 state and the tail not fully developed), while in the two specimens 

 of gularis, it is respectively only .60 and .90. Furthermore, 

 "idaris lias the central pair of rectrices broader and more evenly 

 rounded at the tips than are those of mollis. 



These characters, although of undoubted specific value, will 

 by no means warrant generic separation, the general shape and 

 proportions of the two birds being strikingly similar, and the 

 bill and feet — in this family the most important of all the generic 

 characters — absolutely identical. Accordingly, while I follow 

 Dr. Coues in referring Peale's bird to the genus ^"Estrelata, I do 

 not hesitate to reinstate it as a perfectly valid species. 



In view of the fact that both the previous descriptions are found- 

 ed on a young bird, and that one of them (Peale's) is too superficial 

 to be available in nice determinations, while the other, by Dr. 

 Coues, is only incidental in character, I take the present oppor- 

 tunity to redescribe the species as follows : — 



iEstrelata gularis, iPcale), Brewster. Peale's Petrel. 



Ch. sp. similis !*E mollis sed tectricibus caudaj inferioribus candidis ; 

 alis subtus fere ex toto candidis; duabus tertiis partibus pogonii interni 

 abrupte albis; cauda breviori ac minus conspicue curvata; rectricibus me- 

 diis latioribus. 



Adult (?) plumage. No. 5224. author's collection. Mt. Morris. Livings- 

 ton Co., New York. April. 1880. Upper parts, including the tail coverts 

 and exposed surface of rectrices. pure cinereous, which deepens to plumb- 

 eous onlv on the occiput, rump and wings, the latter having the middle 

 and greater coverts of the same tint as the back. The feathers of the 

 back (but not those of the rump or occiput), with the greater and middle 

 wing-coverts, broadly tipped with ashy-white, giving these parts a scaled 

 appearance. The throat, jugulum, upper part of breast, and under tail- 

 coverts, pure, silky white. The cinereous of the upper parts comes down 

 along the sides of the neck, encroaching more and more and deepening in 

 tint as it extends backward, until it throws across the abdomen a broad band 



