14 NATURAL HISTORY OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



CESTRELATA LESSOWI, [Gam.) CttSS. (pp. 27,39.) 



On pages 26 aud 27 of the report preceding tliis, upon the birds of 

 Kerguelen Island,* were described a series of undetermined young birds, 

 with the note by Dr. Coues, " Not seen by me — probably some Puffi- 

 nusJ^ Upon examination of the specimens preserved, there remains no 

 reasonable doubt that they are the young of (Eestrelata lessoni. The bill 

 is that of an (Eestrelata, and the measurements agree closely with those 

 of (E. lessoni, both from dried skins in the museums of the Philadelphia 

 Academy and Smithsonian Institution, and as taken by Dr. Kidder from 

 the recent specimens. These young birds were found on Kerguelen 

 Island as early as September 15, living in deep burrows in hill-sides. 

 At about the same time, an adult specimen was brought into camp by 

 one of the men attached to the party, with the statement that it had been 

 found with young, but was unfortunately not preserved, and the old 

 birds were not found again until December 29, in a burrow without egg 

 or young. It will be remembered that (E. Mdderi, the only other species 

 of the genus known to be found on the island, was taken with egg on 

 October 21, and is thus excluded from consideration. From the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Philadelphia Academy for 1866,t we extract the follow- 

 ing description of the young of (E. lessoni : — 



"No. 15709, Smiths. Eegister, Terra del Fuego, T. E. Peale.— Entire 

 upper parts dusky fuliginous-brown ; the dorsal feathers usually with 

 somewhat light margins ; the color deepening on the wings and back 

 into brownish-black. Some of the secondaries, tertials, and upper co- 

 verts have a slight cinereous tinge. On the head and nape, the brown 

 is lighter than elsewhere ; and a somewhat diluted shade of this color 

 extends adown the throat, thus completely enveloping the head, and 

 occupies likewise the upper half of the breast, quite across, as well as 

 all the sides under the wings. On the crissum, and especially on all the 

 under tail-coverts, except immediately around the anus, the color again 

 deepens into brownish-i)lack. The rest of the under parts are white. 

 The circumocular region is darker than the adjacent parts. 



" The foregoing is the most immature plumage known to me, and it 

 will be noticed that not only the colors themselves, but the pattern of 

 coloration, is radically distinct from those of the adults. In some spec- 

 imens is recognisable a faint shade of a darJcer color on the tips of thefeath- 



* Op. cit. vide note to p. 1 of this report. 



t Critical Review of the Family ProcellariidiB, part iv, by Dr. Elliott Coues, U. S. A., 

 p. 144. 



