Oeder PKOCELLABIIFOBMES.1 



[Family PUFFIN ID^. 



(ESTRELATA CERVICALIS. 



(SUNDAY-ISLAND PETEEL.) 



(Estrelata cerYicalis, Salvin, Ibis, 1891, p. 192. 



Shobtly before my visit to Europe in 1891 the late Captain Fairchild kindly presented me 

 with a beautiful Petrel from Sunday Island, in both adult and young states. The bird appeared 

 to me to be an entirely new species, but, as I was coming home, I decided to delay my publica- 

 tion of it till I could compare my specimens with the types in the British Museum. But I 

 was too late, for, in the meantime, a Captain Carpenter had sent a skin to the Museum 

 and Mr. Salvin had named it as above.* It had fallen into good hands; and my only regret 

 in the matter was that I had wished to connect Captain Fairchild's name with this fine 

 species. 



This Petrel, in life, is perhaps the loveliest of the whole group. So far as is at present known, 

 its breeding resort is confined to a single island— one of the Kermadecs— where of late it has 

 become, unfortunately, appreciably scarce. In the case of sea-birds, however, there is always 

 the hope that there is some other undiscovered nursery where the species will be perpetuated. 



Large numbers of these birds have been killed for the sake of their soft plumage, which finds 

 a ready market ; but, so far, it has been found impossible to take out entirely the peculiar Petrel- 

 odour inherent to them. 



Captain Hutton thus describes the young of this species : — 



Nestling.— The down still on the back of the head, back, flanks, and crissum. The colours of the plumage 

 resemble those of the adult, but are lighter. The feathers of the back are more broadly margined with light 

 grey, as also are those of the uropygium. The upper wing-coverts, both greater and median, are margined 

 with grey, and the feathers of the wings and tail are lighter than in the adult. On the other hand/the yellow 

 of the feet and tarsi is much darker. 



Mr. Cheeseman, who had not then been able to identify the species, writes of this Petrel in 

 his paper, quoted on page 31, that it arrives in the Kermadec Islands about the end of September 

 and remains till the end of June, being one of the last Petrels to leave. Its breeding place is usually 

 near the mountain-top in some dark gully filled with palms and tree-ferns, and generally its 

 burrow is made at the roots of the latter. It is solitary in its habits, and two of the nests are 

 seldom found in the same locality. It is a nocturnal bird, and rarely leaves its burrow 

 during the day. An egg sent to the Auckland Museum by Mr. Day measures 2*5 inches in length 

 by 1*9, and is of the purest white. 



The coloured drawing by Mr. Keulemans (Plate III.) gives a very true representation of this 

 bird. Shortly before leaving the Colony, I had an opportunity of acquiring a good series collected 

 by the Bell family, and this enabled me to present specimens to the Colonial Museum, to the 

 Cambridge University Museum, to the Zoological Museum of Berlin, and to other public in- 

 stitutions. 



* Mr. Salvin thus distinguishes the species in the ' Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.' (xxv., p. 411) : " Similar to (E. externa 

 (from Masafuera Island), but much darker on the upper surface, the feathers of the back hardly showing grey edges ; the 

 under wing-coverts are less white, those of the edges of the wing being mingled black and white ; the primaries have less 

 white at the base of the inner web, the white portions being almost covered by the longest white coverts." 



