Vol. XIV 
oe General Notes. a1 5 
1. We have done well in separating Diomedeidz ! asa family apart from 
Procellariide, and also in declining to raise Oceanitine to full family 
rank. While we may not follow Mr. Salvin to the length of recognizing 
Puffinide as a family (though he certainly gives some good characters, 
cranial and other), it is quite true that we must adopt several more 
subfamilies than now appear on our List: 
a. FULMARIN®. Equivalent to the Fulmaree and Prionee of my 
early papers; including among our genera Daféion. I failed to 
recognize the real character of this group, which is the lamel- 
lirostral bill, Seen at its best in the exotic genus Przon. The 
lamelle are obsolete or hardly evident in the true Fulmars, but 
easily seen in Daftion, a form which connects the extremes 
perfectly. 
&. PUFFININ®. Equivalent to the Puffiinee and CEstrelatee of my 
early papers; which two groups come sufficiently near together. 
None of these birds have any lamellation of the bill, but all 
share basipterygoids with the Fulmarine. 
c. PROCELLARIIN#. Restricted to the short-legged “ Stormy ” Petrels. 
d. OCEANITIN®. The remarkably grallatorial ‘‘ Stormy” Petrels, as 
they stand at present in the A. O. U. List. 
2. Pxiocella and Priofinus are perfectly good genera, the former of 
Fulmarine, the latter of Puffininae. They have stood as such in the 
‘Key’ since 1884, and should never have been degraded.  Préocedla, in 
fact, is so different from Fulmarus, with which the A. O. U. combines it, 
that Mr. Salvin puts it in the other subfamily: 
3. Cymodroma should not have replaced Fregetta—a word which is 
sufficiently different from Fregata, according to our orthographic (or 
rather cacographic) rules. Our canon on the subject does not permit us 
to rule out names which are differently spelled, if more than grammatical 
gender of terminal inflection be involved: witness Lepfofz/la, etc. 
4. Puffinus strickland?. I think it very likely that, as held by Mr. 
Salvin, all the large Sooty Shearwaters must be united under P. gréseus. 
But if we propose to separate the Atlantic bird from that of the Pacific, 
its name is P. fulég¢nosus. For, though there are several cases of prior 
use of the term Procellarta fuliginosa, for various birds of different 
genera, I find no use of Pufinus fuliginosus for any species prior to 
Strickland, 1832; and certainly preoccupation of a specific name in one 
genus never debars its use in another genus. The earliest use of 
Procellaria fuliginosa appears to be by Gmelin, 1788, for the Sooty Petrel 
of Latham, now Oceanodroma fuliginosa ; but this in no wise affects the 
standing of Puffinus fuliginosus. —ELLioTT CovueEs, Washington, D.C. 
1Still more distinct from other 7zdzzares are the exotic Pelecanotdide, the 
full family rank of which I indicated in Pr. Phila. Acad., 1868, p. 54; and I 
should not have degraded this group in later writings. 
