46 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



given as follows : Very small Petrels, with small bills having tubular nostrils opening 

 horizontally and a more or less distensible sac between the rami of the lower 

 mandible. The body is short and compact, the neck short and thick ; the wings 

 are short and the tail square and very small ; the legs have a short compressed 

 tarsus and the anterior toes are long with long claws, but there is no hind-toe. The 

 plumage is thick and glossy. 



Superficially these birds are so like members of the genus Alle, referable to a 

 different order, that close examination of the head is necessary to distinguish them. 

 'The coincidence is regarded as a good instance of convergence through similar 

 habits of life, viz., swimming and diving. 



The distribution is circumpolar, Antarctic and Sub-antarctic, the later evolved 

 genus living up the west coast of South America almost into the tropics, this range 

 agreeing with the cold current which is supposed to wash the Galapagos Archipelago 

 and allow of the presence of Penguins in that locality. 



Osteologically, the skull is peculiar in the great width of the basi-temporal region, 

 the development of the sternum with its entire posterior edge being quite different 

 from that of any other of the order, while the pelvis is also peculiar, agreeing in 

 many features with that of the Auks, and there is reason to believe that later research 

 will reconsider the classification of this group. In almost every oeteological feature 

 this group differs from other Procellarians, but all the differences have been minimised 

 on account of the tubular nostrils, which however are quite unlike those of any other 

 form of Petrel or Albatross. 



Genus PELECANOIDES. 



PeUcanoidea Lacepede, Tabl. Ois., p. 13, 1799 (Dec.). Type (by monotypy) : Procellaria 



urinatrix Gmelin. 



Haladroma Illiger, Prodr. Mamm. et Av., p. 274, (pref. April) 1811. Type (by monotypy) : 



P. urinatrix Gmelin. 



Onocralus Rafinesque, Analyse Nature, p. 72, 1815. New name for " Pclecanoidc* Lac." 



(c/. Auk, Vol. XXVI., p. 50, Jan. 1909). 



Smaller Pelecanoidine Petrels with short bills, short wings, very short tail and 

 short legs and long toes, but no hind-toe. 



The bill is short, the unguis long and hooked, the sides basally widening, but 

 rather flattened above, supporting the almost horizontally open tubular nostrils. 

 These are characteristic and are almost kidney shaped, elongate and adjacent, 

 separated by a noticeable septum. Internally from the inner edge of each a minute 

 projection can be seen. The unguis is compressed and almost keeled. The lower 

 mandible has the rami curved, meeting the separated unguis, but not each other, 

 and enclosing a distensible sac, whence the genus name. The wings are short and 

 rounded, though the first primary is longest, the secondaries short but the tertials 

 longer. The tail is very short and square, the feathers not very broad. The legs 

 are short, the tarsus compressed and covered with reticulate scaling ; the anterior 

 toes very long, the outer and middle subequal, the inner much less ; the claws are 

 very long and narrow, that of the middle toe the longest. There is no hind-toe. 

 The webbing is full. 



Plumage thick, coloration black above, white below. 



36. Pelecanoides urinatrix. DIVING PETREL. 



[Procellaria urinatrix Gmelin, Syst. Nat., Vol. I., pt. 11., p. 560, April 20th, 1789 : Queen 



Charlotte's Sound, South Island, New Zealand. Extra-limital.] 



Gould, Vol. VII., pi. 60 (pt. xv.), June 1st, 1844. Mathews, Vol. II., pt. 2, pi. 94, July 31st, 



1912. 



Pelecanoides urinatrix bekheri Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. I., pt. 4, p. 84, Sept. 18th, 



1912: Victoria. 



DISTRIBUTION. South-eastern Australian Seas. 



