44 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Adult male. General colour above dark blue-grey, including the head, hind- 

 neck, sides of breast, back, scapulars, and tail, the head and rump darker than the 

 back ; lesser wing-coverts dusky -brown becoming darker and inclining to black on 

 the bastard -wing and primary -co verts, the latter edged with white at the tips ; 

 the four outer primary -quills black on the outer webs, white on the inner ones, 

 with black shafts ; inner primaries and secondaries pale blue-grey with a certain 

 amount of white on the inner webs and dark shaft-streaks ; the long scapulars 

 blackish tipped with white ; middle tail-feathers blue-grey like the back, with broad 

 black tips which become obsolete on the outer feathers, the colour of which is paler ; the 

 feathers of the crown are black subterminally ; base of fore-head and lores whitish 

 like the superciliary streak ; throat, breast, abdomen and sides of body white like 

 the axillaries and under wing-coverts ; under tail-coverts white at base, the long 

 ones blackish at the tips, the short coverts blue-grey like the lower flanks ; upper 

 bill, pale bluish-grey, shading into black at the base and on the nostrils, the central 

 part of the culmen also black and the terminal part or point of the upper bill yellow. 

 Mandible pale blue, with a black line along the centre of each side, and the tip black ; 

 iris dark brown, legs and toes pale blue ; webs, flesh pink, with the free borders 

 grey. Total length 300 mm. ; culmen (exp.) 33, wing 209, tail 104, tarsus 33, width 

 of bill 20. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 



Immature. Coloration as in adult, but wings shorter and bill much weaker, 

 shorter and narrower and paler coloured. 



Nestling. The young taken out of the nest on the 20th November are clothed 

 entirely with a dense covering ol dark smoky-grey, lightest on the neck and under- 

 surface ; pectinations of the upper mandible undeveloped ; the bill measures from 

 gape to point 1 inch, greatest width only 4 lines. 



Nest. At the end of a straight burrow, which dips slightly for eighteen to 

 twenty-four inches. Or in the cavities of the cliffs on the sea-shore. 



Egg. Clutch, one ; pure white, glossless and minutely pitted ; axis 48.5, 

 diameter 35. (Chatham Islands.) 



Breeding -season. September. (Chatham Islands.) 



Distribution and forms. Round the Sub-antarctic Circle. Six forms are recog- 

 nised : P. v. vittata (Gmelin) from New Zealand, with the broadest bill ; P. v. gouldi 

 Mathews, from Bass Straits, with a much smaller bill, culmen 31.5 long by 17 mm. 

 wide ; the former, 33 by 20 mm. ; P. v. missa Mathews from West Australian waters, 

 with a longer, narrower bill, length 36mm. by 17.5 wide ; P. v. macgittivrayi Mathews, 

 from St. Paul's Island, with a bill like that of P. v. gvuldi, but slightly shorter and 

 wider ; P. v. salvini Mathews from the Crozets (type) and Marion Island with the 

 bill like that of P. v. missa, but slightly shorter and narrower ; and P. v. keyteli 

 Mathews, from Tristan d'Acunha, with a bill like that of P. v. vittata, but of paler 

 coloration above. It may be noted that the three first-named subspecies occur in 

 Australian seas. 



Genus MACRONECTES. 



Macronectes Richmond, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XVIII., p. 76, 1905, Feb. 21st. Type 



(by original designation) : Procellaria gigantea Gmelin. 



Ossifraga Hombron et Jacquinot, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris., Vol. XVIII., p. 356, 



March 1844. Type (by monotypy) : P. gigantea Gmelin. 



Not Wood, Analyst, Vol. II., p. 305, June 1835. 



An unmistakable generic type of Procellarian bird, being of large size, sur- 

 passing some of the smaller Albatrosses. The bill is very stout, longer than the 

 head, and also longer than the tarsus. The nasal tube is more than half the length 

 of the chord of the culmen, and reaches to the unguis ; it is flattened and broad 



