543 



Genus CESTEELATA. 



Procellaria apud Kuhl, Beitr. Zool. i. p. 142 (1820). 

 Puffinus apud Lafresnaye, Eev. Zool. ii. p. 102 (1839). 

 Fulmarus apud Bonaparte, Compt. Bend. xlii. p. 772 (1855). 

 JEstrelata, Bonaparte, ut supra (1855). 

 (Estrelata, Newton, Ibis, 1870, p. 277 (ex Bonaparte). 



The birds belonging to the present genus inhabit the North and South Pacific and Atlantic 

 Oceans, only one species occurring as a rare straggler within the limits of the Western Palaearctic 

 Begion. They are said to resemble the Shearwaters in their general habits ; and like them they 

 are to a large extent nocturnal, especially during the breeding-season ; for they remain hidden 

 during the day, and emerge only in the evening to range about the sea in search of their food, 

 which is said to consist almost entirely of fish. They burrow in the ground like rabbits, and are 

 said to deposit two white eggs at the end of their nest-hole, which is sometimes tolerably long. 



(Estrelata hwsitata, the type of the genus, has the bill stout, compressed, rather shorter 

 than the head, straight for some distance, then ascending at the commencement of the unguis, 

 which is sharply decurved, with an acute tip ; nasal tubes moderately long, elevated, conspicuous, 

 the dorsal outline straight, the orifice subcircular; wings long, pointed, extending beyond the 

 tail when folded, the first quill longest, the second scarcely shorter ; tail long, graduated ; feet 

 of moderate size, the tarsus reticulated ; hind toe small, elevated ; anterior toes moderate ; claws 

 curved, moderately acute. 



122 



