SHOUT-TAILED SHEARWATER. 27 



Genus NEONECTRIS. 



Neonectris Mathews, Austral Av. Kec., Vol. II., pt. 1, p. 12, Aug. 2nd, 1913. Type (by 

 original designation) : Puffinus brevicaudus Gould. 



Large Puffinine birds with long bills, long wings, short tails and long legs and 

 feet. Agreeing with the preceding save in the weaker bill, shorter tail and com- 

 paratively longer legs. The bill is not so strong, while the tail is less than one-third 

 the length of the wing and only one and a half times the length of the tarsus. The 

 tarsus is about one and a half times the length of the culmen. 



Coloration unicolour dusky. 



Two species, with difficulty separable by means of the shorter bill and shorter 

 legs of the latter which lacks the white inner wing coloration of the former. 



17. Neonectris griseus. SOMBRE SHEARWATER. 



Mathews, Vol. II., pt. 1, pi. 77, May 30th, 1912. 



Procellaria grisea Gmelin, Syst. Nat., Vol. I., pt. u., p. 564, April 20th, 1789 : New Zealand 



Seas. Extra-limital. 



Neonectris griseus nMteften Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. III., pt. 3. p. 54, April 7th, 1916 : 



Sydney, New South Wales. 



DISTRIBUTION. East Australian Seas. 



Adult male. General colour above sooty-black, with darker shaft-lines ; some 

 of the feathers of the wings show a tendency to hoary -grey, sides of face and throat 

 also hoary -grey, which colour pervades the entire under-surface ; under wing- 

 coverts mottled with white and brown, the shaft-streaks strongly pronounced. 

 Bill wholly black, but with a narrow thread-like white line at the base of the upper 

 bill. Iris very dark brown. Legs and toes black on the outer surface, but lilac or 

 purple on the inner surface. Webs blackish. Claws black. Total length 345 mm. ; 

 culmen (exp.) 39, wing 299, tail 85, tarsus 60. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 



Nestling. Covered with thick slaty-grey down. 



Nest. At the end of a burrow. 



Egg. Clutch, one ; colour white ; axis 80 mm., diameter 49. 



Breeding -season. November. (Snares Island.) December to January. (Moko- 

 hinou Islands.) As late as March. (Island of Kapiti.) 



Distribution and forms. In the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Exact range and 

 forms not settled. Mathews in 1912 admitted three subspecies : N. g. griseus 

 (Gmelin) from New Zealand ; N. g. chilensis Bonaparte, from West American coasts ; 

 and N. g. stricklandi Ridgway from Atlantic seas. Since then two forms from the 

 North Pacific Ocean have been added by Mathews and Iredale, N. g. pescadoresi, 

 from the Pescadores Islands, with longer, stouter bills and shorter legs and N. g. 

 missus, from the Kurile Islands, with still longer bills and a purer ashy-brown 

 coloration throughout. 



18. Neonectris tenuirostris. SHORT- TAILED SHEARWATER. 



[Procellaria tenuirostris Temminck et Laugier, Plan. Color. d'Ois., 99 e livr. (Vol. V., pi. 587), 

 1835 : Japan. Extra-limital.] 



Gould, Vol. VII., pi. 56 (pt. xxvm.), Sept. 1st, 1847. Mathews, Vol. II., pt. 1, pi. 78, May 

 30th, 1912. 



Puffinus brevicaudus Gould, Birds Austr., pt. xxvm. (Vol. VII., pi. 56), Sept. 1st, 1847 : 



Green Island, Bass Straits. 



Puffinus intermedium Hull, Emu, Vol. XI., pt. n., p. 98, Oct. 2n d .'911 : Cabbage Tree Island,. 



Port Stephens, New South Wales. 



Neonectris tenuirostris grantianus Hull, Emu, Vol. XV., p. 206, Jan. 1st, 1916 (ex Bull. No. 5, 



R.A.O.U., 21/12/15. Unpublished) : Ulladulla, New South Wales. 



