786 DR. O. FINSCH ON BIRDS FROM NIUAFOU ISLAND. [NoV. 20, 



18. Gygis ALDA (Sparini.). 



Native name Tula, Iliibner. 



One old male (October 1876). 



The island Niuafu is a new locality for this widely distributed 

 species. 



" This species also lays but one egg, in a shallow hole on a hori- 

 zontal branch of a tree, without any other material." — Iliibner. 



19. PUFKINUS OBSCURUS (Gm.). 



P. dichrous, F. & H. Ornith. Central-Poly n. p. 244; Finscb, 

 Journ.Mus, Godeflfr. Heft viii. 1875, p. 44 ; id.ib.PM^m/s,sp.? (Viti). 



P. dichrous, obscui-us, auduboni, and sp. ? (from Viti), Finsch, 

 P. Z. S. 1872, p. 108-112. 



Native name Teiko, Hiibner. 



Male and female (October 1876), in every respect like specimens 

 from Palau ; the under tail-coverts are black, more extended in the 

 male, with faint white tips. 



For several years I have paid special attention to the Procel- 

 lariidee, among the numerous members of which a good many still 

 remain obscure generically and specifically ; and none have troubled 

 me more than the Procellaria obscura of Gmelin, described originally 

 nearly a hundred years ago by Latham from Christmas Island. 



In my former notes on this subject I have endeavoured to show 

 that under this name were confounded about four species, nearly 

 allied but differing in the coloration of the under tail-coverts and in 

 the extent of the black and white on the cheeks. I thought it 

 certain that there were at least two distinct species — one with black 

 under tail-coverts {Pvffimis dichrous, F. & H.), from the Pacific, the 

 other with white under tail-coverts (the true P. obscurus, Gm.), from 

 Madagascar. (Cf. Finsch, P. Z. S. 1872, pp. 108, 110, and Journ. 

 f. Ornith. 1874, p. 208.) Since my last publication on this subject 

 I have had the pleasure not only of examining one of Latham's types 

 in the Vienna Museum (P. tenebrosus, Natt.), but also a series of 

 specimens from the Palau group, together with others from Mauri- 

 tius, Bourbon, and Madagascar, kindly lent to me by Dr. von Pelzeln 

 and Professor Newton. The careful examination of this material, 

 richer perhaps than any one has before had in aid of his studies, 

 convinces me that the coloration of the under tail-coverts forms no 

 distinctive character, as there exist all j)hases of graduation, from 

 specimens with the under tail-coverts pure white to such as have 

 these parts partially or nearly uniform black. The following notes 

 taken of series of skins will prove this to be the case. 



n, Latham's type from the Leverian Museum (now in the Vienna 

 Museum), said to be from King George's Sound. Type of P. 



