464 PEOCELLAEIID^ PEOCBLLABIA 



inner under wing-coverta and under tail-coverts white ; the longer 

 under tail-coverts, which reach nearly to the tip of the rectrices, are 

 broadly tipped with sooty ; the bases of the lateral tail-feathers are 

 white. 



Iris brown ; bill and legs black. 



Length 7'75 ; wing 6-5 ; tail 3'0 ; culmen •60 ; tarsus 1'50 ; 

 middle toe •96. 



Distribution. — This Petrel, which has sometimes been considered 

 to be the Black-bellied in another phase of plumage, is also found 

 throughout the Southern Ocean and the Australian seas ; in the 

 Atlantic it wanders as far north as Florida and Cape Verd. 



There is an example in the South African Museum, alluded 

 to by Layard, which was obtained by Lieutenant Beardslee of the 

 United States Navy, about 300 miles west of Cape Town in May, 

 1867, and Mr. Parkins came across this bird with many others 

 on December 2nd in 39° S. lat., 8° B. long, (about 700 miles from 

 Cape Town) when sailing to Australia in the clipper ship " Sobraon." 

 Its breeding place and eggs appear to be unknown. 



Family II. PROCBLLARIID^. 



Secondaries never less than thirteen in number ; leg bones 

 shorter than the wing bones ; tarsi comparatively short ; covered 

 in front with hexagonal scutes ; claws sharp and compressed ; 

 caeca present ; basipterygoid present or absent ; no accessory head 

 to the semi-tendinosus ; ambiens always present (except in 

 Pelecanoides) and passing over the knee. 



Subfamily I. PEOCELLAEIIN^. 



Nostrils united externally above the culmen ; margin of the 

 sternum even ; no basipterygoid processess ; ambiens muscle 

 present ; caeca present (except in Halocyptena) ; second primary the 

 longest. 



Genus I. PROCELLARIA. 



Type. 

 Procellaria, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. i, p.. 212 (1766) P. pelagica. 



Bill slender, compressed and hooked ; nostrils united externally 

 into a single tube on the top of it; wings long and pointed, 

 secondaries at least thirteen in number; tail square, or slightly 



