AVES PUFFINID/E. 153 



Northerly from Dungeness Spit. "Many Cape Pigeons (Daption 

 capense] were observed flying about the vessel, and swimming in the 

 water in our immediate vicinity, on the lookout for anything in the shape 

 of food that might be thrown overboard ; and these beautiful birds were 

 our companions during the greater part of our passage. A specimen of 

 a larger species of the same tribe, with ash-coloured and white plumage, 

 the Fulmarus glacialioides, was taken on a line put out astern on this 

 day ; and I preserved the skin and the digestive organs, which latter I 

 subsequently compared with those of specimens of the Cape pigeon, after- 

 wards obtained, with the following results: The entire length of the 

 alimentary canal in Fulmarus glacialioides I found to be 85 inches, and 

 that of the intestinal tract, taken by itself, 74.5 inches. The caeca meas- 

 ured three lines in length, and were situated two inches above the anus. 

 The stomach was distinctly divided into a cardiac and a pyloric portion, 

 separated by a short and narrow interval. Of these portions, the cardiac 

 division possessed a comparatively feeble muscular coat, and was remark- 

 ably glandular ; while the pyloric, of a somewhat flattened spheroidal form, 

 was extremely muscular. The former I found distended with a firm mass 

 of semi-digested ship-biscuit ; while the latter contained the two mandibles 

 of a small Cephalopod. In the Cape Pigeon, on the other hand, the 

 length of the entire alimentary canal was 46 inches ; that of the intestinal 

 tract 34.5 inches, The oesophagus enlarged much more abruptly to form 

 the cardiac portion of the stomach than was the case in the Fulmar ; and 

 the -muscular coat of that portion was considerably thicker, so that the 

 gastric glands were not visible through it. The pyloric division was 

 much more feebly developed than in the Fulmar, but the diameter of the 

 intestinal canal was considerably greater than in that species. The 

 stomach of one of the specimens examined contained ship-biscuit, and 

 that of another a piece of pork-rind, so large that it must have distended 

 the oesophagus greatly in its passage downwards." (Cunn. Nat. Hist. Str. 

 Magell. 1871, pp. 223-224.) 



Genus HALOB^NA Is. Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire. 



Type. 



Halobcena, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, 1836 fide Bp. Consp. Av. 

 ii. p. 193 (1856) ; Coues, Proc. Acad. Sci. Philad., 1866, 

 pp. 162-163; Salvin, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus. XXV. p. 431 

 (1896); Sharpe, Hand-List Bds. I. p. 127 (1899). . . H. ccerulea. 



