Petrels of the Kermadec Group. 433 



less variation than had been observed on Sunday Island was 

 suggested, but this I believe was due to the smaller number of 

 birds examined. Every style and combination of coloration 

 was noted, but the extremes were much rarer. I could 

 find no detail whereby the Meyer Island birds could be 

 separated from those of Sunday Island. It may be recorded 

 that previously every investigator, Hutton, Buller, and 

 Salvin, had all failed, from examination of skins, to indicate 

 any separable characters. I am therefore compelled, for the 

 jjresent, to refer to the Meyer Island breeding bird as a variety 

 of CEstrelata neglecta Schlegel. 



These conclusions had been anticipated by Godman in the 

 * Monograph of the Petrels,' which, published whilst 1 was 

 upon the Kermadecs, included all the forms Hutton and 

 BuUer had separated under the species name CEstrelata 

 neglecta Schlegel. That this was due more to chance than 

 anything else is shown by the synonymy utilised and the 

 vernacular name chosen. Thus, Procellaria phillipii Graj is 

 given as a synonym, though anterior to SchlegeFs neglecta, 

 whilst the vernacular name used is Phillip's Fulmar. As a 

 matter of fact, P. phillipii Gray has nothing to do with this 

 species, and the name Phillip^s Fulmar must be rejected. 

 Hartert, Jourdain, Ticehurst, and Witherby in their ' Hand- 

 list of British Birds,^ 1912, p. 154, use the vernacular 

 Schlegel's Petrel, whilst a footnote reads " The name 

 Procellaria phillipii Gray, ' Ibis,^ 1862, p. 246, based on 

 the plate in Phillip, Voyage to Botany Bay, must remain 

 doubtful until we know which kind of Pterodroma breeds on 

 Phillip Island. As this name is not accepted, the English 

 name ' Phillip's Fulmar/ used by Godman {3Ion. Petrels, 

 p. 226), cannot be recommended. — E. H." 



However, the use of Schlegel's Petrel should not be main- 

 tained, as in the ' Monograph of Petrels ' that name was 

 made use of in connection with the CEstrelata incerta 

 Schlegel. I had shown the true value of P. phillipii Gray in 

 connection with this bird in the Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 

 vol. XXXV. 1911, p. 780, and Mathews has completed the 

 task by accurately determining that species (Birds Austr. 



