628 THE BLACK-CAPPED PETREL. 



No. 313. 

 BLACK-CAPPED PETREL. 



A. O. U. No. [98. J yEstrelata hasitata (KuhL). 



Description.— ^dw/^: Head and neck (excepting top of head), upper tail- 

 coverts, basal half of tail, and entire under parts, pure white; remaining upper 

 parts, including top of head, brownish dusky, blackening on wings and tail; the 

 feathers of back, etc., more or less margined with lighter brown; the sides of 

 breast sometimes tinged with brownish gray. Length about 15.00 (381.) ; wing 

 ii.6d (294.6); tail about 5.00 (127.), graduated for less than half its length; 

 bill 1-35 (34-3); tarsus 1.42 (36.1). 



Recognition Marks. — Size of Common Tern; white below, dusky above; 

 upper tail-coverts and base of tail white ; cap blackish. 



Nesting unknown. 



General Range. — Warmer parts of the Atlantic Ocean, straying to Florida, 

 Virginia, New York, Vermont, and Ontario. Also England and France. 



Range in Oliio. — Accidental near Cincinnati. 



IF a company of ghosts were suddenly to "materialize" before us, make 

 strange gestures and depart silently, leaving only their chilly shrouds behind 

 them for mementoes of their visit, we should know about as much of their 

 whence and whither, their "life histories," in short, as we know now of these 

 strange wanderers from the trackless deep. Three of them were picked up 

 wing-weary and half-starved, on the Ohio River near Cincinnati one day in 

 October, 1898, and are now preserved in Cincinnati museums. Their presence 

 was due to a strong east gale which had blown them inland far from their 

 native raid-ocean. Not even the habitat of the species is clearly known, altho 

 it is surmised to be the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The bird is cer- 

 tainly a great wanderer, specimens having been taken in England, France, 

 Hayti, Australia, etc., as well as upon our own Atlantic coasts. 



No. 314. 



HOLBOELL GREBE. 



A. O. U. No. 2. Colymbus holbcellii (Reinh.). 



Description. — Adult in nuptial plumage: Head with short dense occipital 

 crest, heaviest on sides and squarely cut off behind ; top of head, including crest, 

 ridge of neck behind, and upper parts, very deep hair-brown, or brownish black 

 with a silky sheen, pure on head and neck and wings, with slight edgings of dull 

 buffy and ochraceous on back; primaries not different; a large white patch on 

 central secondaries ( recalling the speculum of ducks) ; throat and sides of head 

 pale ashy gray, becoming white on borders ; neck in front and on sides bright 



