1 



326 



PROCELLARIIDiE, PETRELS. 



5"'' 



paratively small and weak ; the honiy piece forming the culmeu very broad, 

 especially at base, where it overlaps the lateral piece ; depth of bill at base 

 IJ, its width there 1-^. Tail contained about 3 times in the wing. General 

 dimensions of the last species, or rather less ; tail longer. Adult plumage 

 dark brown, paler and grayer, or rather plumbeous below, lightening or 

 even whitening about the head ; quills black with yellow shafts ; bill dark ; 

 feet black. A final plumage may be lighter than as described, but is never 

 white ; aud other characters seem to prove the validity of the species. 

 Pacific Coast, very abundant. Aud., vii, 198; Schlegel, M. P.-B., Pto- 

 cellarioi, 33; Savinhoe, Ibis, 1863, 431; Coues, Proc. Phila. Acad. 1866, 



178; Cass., 111. 210, 

 pi. 35. _D. gibbosa 

 Gould? . nigripes. 



** Sides of under 

 mandible with a long 

 colored groove; bill 

 comparatively slender, 

 strongly compressed, 

 with sharp culmen ; 

 frontal feathers forming 

 a deep reentrance on 

 the culmen, a strong 

 salience on the sides of 

 tlie lower mandible. 

 Wing about twice as 

 long as the cuueate 

 tail. (Phctibetria.) 



Sooty Albatross. Fuliginous brown, nearly uniform, in some cases lighten- 

 ing on various parts ; quills and tail blackish with white shafts ; eyelids 

 white ; bill black, the groove yellow ; feet yellow. Length about 3 feet ; 

 wing 20-22 inches ; tail 10-11, its graduation 3J-4J ; tarsi 3 ; bill 4-4 J, at 

 base IJ deep, but only f wide. D. fusca Aud., vii, 200, pi. 454; D.fidi- 

 gmosaJjAWR. in Bd., 823 ; Phoebetriafulifjinosa Coues, I.e. 186. fuliginosa. 



■(.^"Uir^^' 



Sooty Albatross. 



Subfamily PROCELLABIIN^^. Petrels. 



Nostrils united in one double-barrelled tube laid horizontally on tlie culmen at 

 base. Hallux present, though it may be minute. Five groups of petrels may be 

 distinguished, although they grade into each other ; four of them are abundantly 

 represented on our coasts. The fulmars are large gull-like species (one of them 

 might be taken for a gull were it not for the nostrils), usually white with a darker 

 mantle, the tail large, well formed (of 14-lG feathers), the nasal case prominent, 

 with a thin partition. They shade into the group of which the genus ^Ustrelata is 

 typical, embracing a large number of medium sized species, chiefly of Southern 

 seas, in which the bill is short, stout, very strongly hooked, with prominent nasal 

 case ; the tail rather long, usually graduated. The shearwaters have the bill longer 

 than usual, comparatively slender, with short low nasal case, obliquely truncate at 

 the end, aud the partition between the nostrils thick ;. the tail short and rounded ; 



