128 



July 12, 1832. 

 Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart.^ in the Chair. 



At the request of the Chairman, Mr. Arthur Strickland, of Boynton 

 near Burlington, Yorkshire, exhibited a specimen, from his collection, 

 of a Puffin shot by Mr. George Marwood, jun., of Busby, "in the 

 middle of August 1828, in a very stormy day, at the mouth of the 

 Tees : it was seen early in the morning, sitting on the water like a 

 duck, and was shot as it was rising : its manner of flight was con- 

 sequently not noticed." 



After observing on the confusion in which our knowledge of the 

 entire group of the Petrels is at present involved, in consequence of 

 the unsatisfactory descriptions of tliem contained in books, Mr. Strick- 

 land proceeded to state, that the addition to the British Fauna which 

 he submitted to the examination of the Committee was apparently 

 referable to the Pufpnus fuliginosus {Procellaria {Nectris) fuliginoms, 

 Kuhl). The description of this species given by M. Kuhl in his 

 ' Beitriige,' rests upon two unpublished drawings, which form part of 

 the valuable collection of Sir Joseph Banks, now deposited in the 

 British Museum, one of which is marked Procellaria fiitiginosa by 

 Forster, and the other Nectris fuligbiosa by Solander, in whose MS. 

 Notes it is described under the latter name. The Proc. fuligi- 

 7iosa of the same MSS., though similar in size and colour, is entirely 

 different, and at once distinguishable by having the bill short and 

 powerful, and the nostrils in a raised tube, like the true Procellaricv. 

 The Proc. fiiUginosa, Lath., is also altogether distinct, being the Tlui- 

 lassklroma Leachil, Vigors : and the only .lescription in the 'General 

 History of Birds' which at all resembles the present species, is that 

 of the Proc. grisea, a species distinct from that described under the 

 same name by Linnreus. 



Mr. Strickland stated, that he could detect no differences between 

 his specimen and the drawings referred to, except that the latter repre- 

 sented a bird of somewhat larger size, and having the lower parts of 

 the breast of a rather lighter colour. These differences were also 

 observable on comparison with an ap})arently original specimen of 

 Sir Joseph Banks's bird, preserved in spiri', which he had ascertained 

 to exist in the Museum of the Hoyal College of Surgeons. He added, 

 that Sir Joseph Banks's specimens, described by Dr. Solander, were 

 obtained in the Southern Pacific Ocean, in various latitudes and 

 longitudes, extending nearly from the coast of Chili to that of Van 

 Diemen's Land; but remarked, that there was reason to believe, 

 that birds of an ecjually distant locality had, in more instances than 

 one, reached this country. 



In its distinct and very little raised nostrils, the bird in ([uestion 

 agrees with the Sliearimler Petrel, Pitffiuus Anglorum, Kay : it has 



