18 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



quills blackish, white on the inner webs towards the base ; rump and upper tail- 

 co verts grey ; tail grey with a sooty -black band at the tip ; breast, sides of body, 

 axillaries, greater under wing-coverts and abdomen white ; sides of breast and outer 

 edge of wing below greyish sooty-brown ; under tail-coverts white, the lateral and 

 longer ones barred and spotted with ashy-grey ; bill, iris, and feet black. Total 

 length 175 mm. ; culmen (exp.) 13, wing 128, tail 65, tarsus 31. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but not quite so dark on the head. 



Nestling. Unknown . 



Nest. Situated in burrows about 18 inches deep, and resembling rat holes. 

 (Tomahawk Island.) 



Egg. Clutch, one ; ground-colour white, the larger end covered with fine dots 

 of deep reddish-brown and lavender, and a few reddish ones sparingly distributed 

 over the rest of the surface. Dimensions 33 mm. by 23-5. 



Breeding -season. November. (Guano Island.) January. (Tomahawk Island.) 



Distribution and forms. Apparently round the Sub-antarctic Circle. Three 

 forms have been distinguished : G. n. nereis (Gould) from Bass Straits, Australia, 

 breeding in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands ; G. n. couesi Mathews, from 

 Kerguelen Island, on account of their smaller size, av. wing 124 mm. ; and G. n. 

 chubbi (Mathews) from the Falkland Islands, by its larger size, wing average 135 mm., 

 and darker head and breast and more grey on the back. 



Genus PELAGODROMA. 



Pelagodroma Reichenbach, Nat. Syst. Vogel, p. iv., 1852 (? 1853). Type (by original designa- 

 tion) : Procellaria marina Latham. 



Large Storm-Petrels with long hooked bills, long wings, long emarginate tail 

 and long legs and feet. The bill is long with the tubes less than half its length ; 

 the tubes are similar in formation to those of the preceding genera, but the unguis 

 is much longer and less sharply hooked. The latericorns are less sloping and the 

 bill is narrower basally ; the under mandible has the unguis long and nearly straight, 

 the rami little divergent and the interramal space feathered. The wing shows the 

 same formula. The tail is appreciably forked, but only to a slight extent ; the 

 feathers are very broad, and its length is not quite half that of the wing. The legs 

 are long, the exposed tibia long ; the tarsal covering consists of well-marked scutes 

 in front and weaker reticulate scaling behind. The hind -toe is still scarcely dis- 

 cernible, but the anterior toes are very long, the outer toe the longest, and the inner 

 noticeably shorter ; the claws are long and narrow, that of the middle toe the longest, 

 and on the outer shorter and broader. The toes are fully webbed. 



Coloration brown and grey above, white below and upper tail-coverts white. 



ii. Pelagodroma marina. WHITE- FACED STORM-PETREL. 



[Procellaria marina Latham, Index Ornith., Vol. II., p. 826, (before Dec. 9th) 1790 : South 

 Atlantic Ocean. Extra-limital.] 



Gould, Vol. VII., pi. 61 (pt. xvm.), March 1st, 1845. Mathews, Vol. II., pt. 1, pi. 70, May 

 30th, 1912. 



Pelagodroma marina dukice Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. II., pt. 1, p. 21, May 30th, 1912 : 



Breaksea Island, off Albany, South-west Australia. 



Pelagodroma marina howei Mathews, ib., p. 26 : Mud Island, off Victoria. 



DISTRIBUTION. Seas of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, South - 

 and mid-West Australia. 



Adult male. Crown of head and a line below the eye on to the ear-coverts dark 

 slate colour ; hind -neck, sides of neck, and mantle and upper back dark ash-grey 

 with a brownish shade ; lesser wing-coverts, primary -coverts, and quills brownish- 



