UFE HISTOBIES OF lifOKTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 117 



The " cahow " is generally supposed to be extinct, but if the birds 

 described by Messrs. Nichols and Mowbray and by Doctor Shufeldt 

 are really one and the same bird, as they seem to be, the capture of 

 a living bird so recently as 1906 raises the question as to whether 

 there may not be a few specimens still living. 



PTERODROMA INEXPECTATA (Forster). 

 PEALE PETREL, 



HABITS. 



The above name should replace on our check list the names of 

 the two supposed species known as Aestrelata scalaris Brewster, 

 scaled petrel, and Aestrelata fisheri Ridgway, Fisher petrel, for 

 both of these are represented by unique types only and are un- 

 doubtedly only age, seasonal, or individual variants of Pterodroma 

 gularis (Peale), Peale petrel. Mr. Leverett M. Loomis (1918) evi- 

 dently agrees with me, for he says, referring to P. inexpectata which 

 he regards as the same bird as P. gularis : 



Besides the type of Procellaria gularis, 1 have examined the type of 

 CEstrelata fisheri Ridgway (No. 89431 V. S. Nat. Mus.) and that of JEJstrelata 

 scalaris Brewster (No. 52^4 Coll. W. Brewster). The type of CEstrelata 

 fisheri is a worn, faded, and rather weak-billed example of Pterodroma in- 

 expectata. The white-headed aspect is caused chiefly by wear and accidental 

 loss of feathers, exposing the white bases. The feathers of the upper parts 

 of the body are much worn, accounting for the absence of the whitish margins 

 characteristic of the fresh plumage of Pterodroma inexpectata. The weak 

 appearance of the bill is largely due to mutilation, the basal portion of the 

 unguis having been torn off and the nasal tubes flattened. The color above is 

 darker than in No. 1134 and lighter than in No. 1139 of the Expedition col- 

 lection. The markings of the pileum and nape and the extension of the white 

 of the rectrices, greater wing-qoverts, and secondaries break down through an 

 intermediate New Zealand specimen (No. 24345 Carnegie Mus.). The type of 

 ^strelata scalaris is merely a bird In fresher plumage than the other types. 

 The supposed differences in the nasal tubes do not exceed the normal varia- 

 tion occurring in Pterodroma inexpectata. 



The only known specimen of Pterodroma scalaris is the type, in 

 the collection of Mr. William Brewster (1886) from which he de- 

 scribed the species in 1886. Mr. Brewster (1881) published the 

 following account of the capture of the specimen which he obtained 

 from Mr. E. H. Woodman, for whom the bird was mounted: 



The bird had been sent him by a client, Mr. Nathan F. Smith, who conducts 

 a large farm at Mount Morris, Livingston County, New York. One of the 

 laborers while ploughing an old cornfield, noticed it running in a freshly-turned 

 furrow -and despatched it with a stick. It was apparently exhausted, for it 

 made no attempt to escape. This was early in April, 1880, probably not far 

 from the fifth of the month, as I find its reception recorded on Mr. Knowlton's 

 books as April 10. A letter afterwards received from Mr. Smith confirms all 

 of these facts, but adds nothing of interest, save that the farm comprises what 

 83969—22 ^9 



