18 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. II. 



Mathews showed that the name P. gavia Forster, had 

 been misapplied, and gave to the New Zealand bird, 

 commonly called P. gavia, the new name P. reinholdi, 

 and differentiated two subspecies ; later in this periodical 

 he introduced for this species the generic name Reinholdia. 



In the Ibis, 1913, p. 225, Mathews and I accepted 

 that generic name, and noted that Buller had confused 

 some other species with this, and also that Reischek's 

 and Sandager's accounts, presumably of the same species, 

 did not agree. 



The examination of Reischek's specimens proved 

 interesting. Firstly, they undoubtedly belong to the 

 present species and were collected on Hauturu Island ; 

 secondly, Mathews {I.e., p. 74) quotes Buller's descrip- 

 tion of the nestling, and this seems to show the 

 accuracy of our remarks regarding BuUer's knowledge 

 of the New Zealand Petrels, for it disagrees absolutely 

 with the nestlings I examined, and which are unques- 

 tionably the present species : these are wholly brownish- 

 black and have not the whitish under-surface seen in 

 the nestling of P. assimilis ; thirdly, the introduction 

 of the generic Reinholdia is confirmed by examination 

 of the bill-characters shown by the nestling. 



Mathews, in the Birds of Australia, Vol. II., 1912, 

 p. 130, has given beautiful figures of the biUs of downy 

 young of the genera Pterodroma and Puffinus, showing 

 the great difference there exists in the bill-characters 

 at this stage. It was therefore great pleasure to find 

 these downy specimens of this aberrant Pu/jinus, as 

 none were previously available. 



The bill is " puffinoid " in character, as exemplified 

 in the figures given by Mathews above noted, but is 

 peculiar in its extreme length and weak nail ; in the 

 fully downy nestling the exposed culmen measures 

 30 mm., while in the fully adult it only measures 35 mm., 

 the difference may be best expressed by comparison 

 with the young of P. assimilis gavia, where the bill in 

 the fully-downy nestling only measures 16 mm., against 



