23J. PROCELLARIIDiE. 



Latham gives, as the locahties of his White-breasted Petrel, Turtle and 

 Christmas Islands — the former of which lies to the westward of Tonga-tabu, 

 and the latter is situated in the centre of the Polynesian archipelago, nearly 

 under the line. Whence he derived this information he does not say ; but 

 Captain Cook touched at neither place during his first voyage, when Sir 

 Joseph Banks accompanied him. 



Proccllaria sandaliata was taken off the South- American coast, between 

 Rio Janeiro and Cape Horn. 



Procellaria alba has, up to the present time, remained a name of doubtful 

 application, if we except Gray's assignment of it to a species of (Estrelata 

 from the Kermadec Islands, identical with Procellaria neglecta of Schlegel. 

 Gray's view appears to me to be inadmissible, the bird answering but very 

 imperfectly to Latham's description. 



A certain amount of doubt hangs round the application of very many of 

 the names of the old authors w^hich are now generally accepted. In the 

 present case, by applying Latham's name to this Petrel of the South Atlantic, 

 we should probably be not wider of the mark than in a host of other cases. 

 Still the golden rule in questions of nomenclature, never to relinquish 

 certainty for uncertainty, should, I think, not be departed from in the present 

 case. I therefore consider it best to write the synonymy of this species as 

 follows : 



CESTRELATA. ARMINJONIANA*. 



Procellaria sandaliata, Solander, MS.; Parkinson, Icon. ined. No. 20. 

 ? JVhite-breasted Petrel, Lath. Syn. iii. p. 400, et Gen. Hist. x. p. 186? 

 ? Procellaria alba, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 565 ? 



Procellaria ?, Kulil, Beitr. p. 145. 



yEstrelata arminjoniana, Gigl. & Salvad. Ibis, 1869, p. 62. 



* Sed qufere potius trinitatis. Ad hoc confer posted. 



