134 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES  [Proc. 4tu Ser. 
is white, relieved by a few gray feathers on the throat. The 
rest of the body-plumage (except that of the rump) and the 
tail-coverts are extensively white. Nearly all the greater wing- 
coverts, the growing inner primaries, and some of the sec- 
ondaries and scapulars are wholly white. According to Mr. 
Beck’s label, in life the irises were brown and the feet and bill 
white, the latter tipped with brown. There is such regularity 
in the abnormal coloration that this specimen might be easily 
mistaken for a nondescript. Ina second specimen (No. 16062, 
female, September 6, 1909), the plumage of the head and neck 
is immaculate white. The rest of the body-plumage (except 
the white-tipped scapulars), the wings, and the tail-coverts are 
largely white. Two specimens present a general pied appear- 
ance above and below. Another is conspicuously varied with 
white on the posterior portions of the pileum and on the cervix 
and sides of the head and neck. In the remaining specimen, 
the white variations are also pronounced, but are restricted to 
the back and sides of the head, with a partial invasion of the 
cervix and sides of neck. 
The Academy’s series is divided according to calendar 
months as follows: January, five specimens; February, thir- 
teen; March, one; April, fourteen ; May, forty-six ; June, thirty- 
two; July, fourteen; August, sixteen; September, thirty-five ; 
October, twenty-nine; November, twelve; December, six. In 
some cases these specimens represent the extreme results of 
abrasion and bleaching, Mr. Beck having selected them on that 
account. 
As a whole, the Sooty Shearwaters obtained on February 
27, 1907, are much further along in the moult than the Cooper’s 
Shearwaters taken on the same day. The more forward ex- 
amples are moulting the inner primaries, secondaries, wing- 
coverts, the rectrices and their coverts, and the plumage of the 
upper and lower parts. Several of the specimens appear to be 
in nearly complete attire, which old telltale feathers prove is 
not the sequence of a postjuvenal moult. One of the speci- 
mens is growing the eighth primary on each wing, although all 
the other primaries have apparently been replaced. In two 
backward examples, both in worn dress, none of the primaries 
or rectrices have succumbed to moult. 
