505 



OCEANITES OCEANICUS. 



(WILSON'S PETREL.) 



Procellaria pelagica, Wils. Am. Orn. vii. p. 90, pi. 60. fig. 6 (1813, nee Linn.). 



Procellaria oceanica, Kuhl, Beitr. Zool. p. 136, tab. x. fig. 1 (1820). 



Procellaria tvilsoni, Bp. Journ. Acad. Phikd. iii. pt. 2, p. 231, pi. 9. fig. 2 (1824). 



Thalassidroma wilsoni, Bp. Comp. List, p. 64 (1838). 



Thalassidroma oceanica (Kuhl), Schinz, Europ. Faun. i. p. 397 (1840). 



Oceanites wilsoni (Bp.), Keys. & Bias. Wirbelth. Eur. p. 238 (1840). 



Oceanites oceanica (Kuhl), Bp. Compt. Rend. xlii. p. 769 (1856). 



Oceanites oceanicus (Kuhl), Salvin in Rowley's Zool. Misc. i. p. 227 (1876). 



Figurce notabiles. 



Fritsch, Vog. Eur. taf. 61. fig. 3; Gould, B. of Austr. pi. 65; Audub. B. of Am. pi. 460; 

 Wilson, Am. Orn. pi. 69. fig. 6. 



Fuliginoso-niger, vix ciuereo-fusco tinctus : remigibus nigris : tectricibus alarum griseo-brunnescentibus, 

 medianis vix albido notatis : cauda nigra, supracaudalibus, nropygii et crissi lateribus albis : rostro 

 nigro : iride fused : pedibus nigris, membranis flavis nigro marginatis. 



Adult Male (off Fayal, 21st May). Plumage generally sooty black with, a faint greyish tinge, especially on 

 the head and neck; wings and tail deep black; wing-coverts brownish, a few of the median coverts 

 marked with greyish white, making an indistinct band across the wing ; rump (except the central part 

 of the upper rump, which is black), lower flanks, and sides of the under tail-coverts pure white ; tail 

 nearly even, the outer rectrices being but slightly longer than the central ones ; bill and legs black, the 

 basal half of the webs of the feet yellow; iris dark brown. Total length about 7 inches, culmen 065 

 gape - 75, wing 5 - 75, tail 3 - 0, tarsus T3, bare portion of tibia 065. 



Adult Female. Resembles the male. 



This Storm-Petrel, easily recognizable by the yellow on the webs of its feet, is found on both 

 sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and in the Indian Ocean from the coasts of North America and 

 those of the British Isles down to Kerguelen Land and South Australia, and is by no means 

 uncommon on the ocean off the Azores. It has been met with on the coasts of Great Britain 

 much more frequently than Bulvver's Petrel. Jenyns (Man. Brit. Vert. Anim. p. 286) says that 

 he " was informed by Yarrell that it had been killed in the British Channel, though at some 

 distance from land." Mr. Gould (P. Z. S. 1839, p. 39) states that it was seen in abundance off the 

 Land's End in May 1838 ; Colonel Delme Radcliffe (Zool. 1864, p. 8892) records the occurrence 

 of one at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, in November 1863 ; Couch of one at Polperro, Cornwall, 

 in November 1838 ; Bond informed Yarrell of the occurrence of one in Sussex. One is also stated 



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