38 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



seventy years ago.) Freshly moulted specimens have head, hind-neck, sides of 

 neck and mantle dark bluish-grey ; median and greater wing-coverts and back 

 ashy-grey with noticeable white fringes to the feathers ; lower back lighter ; rump 

 dark, like head ; upper tail-coverts and tail like lower back, but tips of tail-feathers 

 darker. All the feathers of the upper-surface with lighter bases ; from the back to 

 the tail pure white bases. 



Adult female. Not so dark above as the male and slightly smaller in all the 

 measurements. 



Nestling. About four weeks old. Head and the whole upper-surface covered 

 with bluish -grey down, extending on to the flanks ; chin, throat, and upper-breast, 

 white ; centre of breast, abdomen, and under-tail, white. Bill, black, interdigital 

 membrane fleshy-white and basal half, black. Total length 8 inches. 



Younger birds, about 5 inches in length, show more of the white on the under - 

 surface. 



Nest. A depression in the ground, or a crevice among loose stones, lined 

 with a small quantity of broken pieces of dead fronds of the cabbage palm. 



Egg. One ; soft chalky -white, rounded oval ; dimensions 50 mm. by 37. 



Breeding-season. November and December. 



Distribution and forms. Pacific Ocean only. Seven forms are known, but 

 whether these should be considered subspecies or specifically distinct is problematical . 

 These forms are C. c. cookii (Gray) from New Zealand mainland ; C. c. leucoptera 

 (Gould) from Eastern Australia, in its darker coloration above and smaller size ; 

 C. c. nigripennis (Rothschild) from the Kermadec Group, in its dark inner webs to 

 the primaries ; C. c. axillaris (Salvin) from the Chatham Islands, on account of its 

 black axillaries (all the other forms have white axillaries) ; C. c. dfflippiana (Giglioli 

 and Salvadori) from western South America, paler than the typical form with 

 shorter legs and tail ; C. c. longirostris (Stejneger) from the Japanese Isles with a 

 longer, thinner bill and dark upper coloration with white inner webs to primji 

 and C. c. hypoleuca (Salvin) from the Marshall and Bonin Group with a dark upper 

 coloration and dark inner webs to primaries and also a decidedly longer tail than 

 any of the others. And Dr. Einar Lonnberg has described C. c. masafuerce from 

 Juan Fernandez. 



Genus DAPTION. 



Daption Stephens, in Shaw's Gen. Zool., Vol. XIII., pt. I., p. 239, Feb. 18th, 1826. Type 



(by original designation) : Procettaria capensis Lanne. 



Calopetes Sundevall, Meth. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent., p. 142, (before June 12th) 1873. New name 



for Daption. 



Petretta Mathews, Auk, Vol. XXXI., p. 91, Jan. 1st, 1914, ex Zimmermann. Type (by 



monotypy) : P. capensis Linn6. (Discarded as of a binary, but not binomial writer.) 



Medium Fulmarine Petrels with long broad bills, long wings, long tail, and 

 strong legs and feet. The bill is long with long nasal tubes lying along the culmen 

 about half its length and the unguis comparatively weak ; the laterals are expanded 

 and inside have obsolete pectinations. The lower mandible has a curved unguis, 

 while the rnandibular rami are curved and wide apart enclosing an unfeathered skin, 

 which can be puffed out like a pouch. The wing has the first primary longest. The 

 tail is rounded, with fourteen feathers, more than one-third the length of the wing. 

 The legs are comparatively stout and of less lateral compression than on the Puffinine 

 forms, and the tarsus is a little longer than the culmen ; the middle toe is exceeded 

 by the outer, and the hind-toe is a mere spur. 



Coloration unique, brown spots above, brown head, back and wings and white 

 below. 



