4"6 Mr. Tom Iredale on the Surface Breeding 



Cheeseman's first account gives three species as surface 

 breeders : — 



(Esti'elata mollis G\A., on Buller's identification^ was the 

 name of the " Mutton Bird " which bred during the summer 

 (October to Maj^) on Sunday Island. 



(Estrelata sp. was used for the Meyer Island winter- 

 breeding (March to August) bird. Cheeseman observed 

 that these birds seemed to him inseparable from the Sunday 

 Island bird. 



(Estrelata neglecta Schl. ? was included as being on record 

 from the Kermadecs^ and because he had notes which might 

 refer to this species. 



Buller about the same time drew attention to the fact 

 that this Petrel was dimorphic in coloration, both dark- 

 coloured and light-coloured birds occurring and breeding 

 together. He, however, used for the bird the incorrect name 

 (Estrelata mollis Gould. 



Hutton then, having received a collection of Petrels from 

 Cheeseman, contributed to the Proceedings of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society of London, 1893, a paper theorising as to the 

 observed variation. That paper is somewhat misleading as 

 the labelling of the birds was incompletely and inaccurately 

 done, and misled by these labels and furnished with paltry 

 data, incorrect deductions were ai'rived at. 



Therein three species and one variety were maintained. 

 Thus on p. 752 (Estrelata leucophrys was proposed as a new 

 species i"or a very light white-headed form from Sunday 

 Island, 



(Estrelata neglecta Schlegel, p. 752, was given as the 

 correct name for the bird identified by Buller as (E. mollis 

 Gould. Though the birds were labelled Sunday Island, 

 Hutton states that Cheeseman informed him that this was 

 the winter Mutton Bird of Meyer Island. Included also 

 was a nestling labelled " Sunday Island, Nov. 1890.'' The 

 description shows that either the labelling was done when 

 the steamer lay at anchor at Sunday Island, or else when the 

 birds arrived at Auckland. For no such bird could have 



