H 



Order PROCELLARIIFORMES.] 



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[Family PUFFIN IBM. 



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(ESTRELATA NEGLECTA. 



(SCHLEGEL'S PETREL.) 



(Estrelata neglecta (Schlegel), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, ii., p. 224. 



Under the name of (Estrelata leucophrys, Captain Hutton described, in the ' Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society ' (1893, p. 749), a Petrel which he had received from the Kermadec Islands, 

 his paper being illustrated by a beautiful figure of the bird from the pencil of Mr. Keulemans. 

 I had, however, previously brought to England a good series of specimens from the same locality 

 which I submitted to Mr. Salvia, who unhesitatingly referred them to the highly variable 

 (Estrelata neglecta. At his suggestion I afterwards called at the Zoological Society's Rooms to 

 see the type of Hutton's new species, of which a drawing was being then prepared for publica- 

 tion, and it was undoubtedly of the same form. 



In a paper read before the Wellington Philosophical Society in September, 1894, I wrote :— 



When I had the privilege of placing before you on July 25th last a budget of ornithological notes, I took 

 occasion to refer to Professor Hutton's supposed new species of Petrel from the Kermadec Islands, to which 

 he had given the name of (Estrelata lecuophrys, and, following Mr. Salvin, I then stated my belief that, instead 

 of being a distinct species, it was only a form of (E. neglecta, We have not had to wait long for confirmation 

 of this view. I have the pleasure of exhibiting to-night a pair of birds kindly lent to me for that purpose 

 by Mr. Bethune, the second engineer of the ' Hinemoa.' The male bird is in the plumage of Professor 

 Hutton's (Estrelata leucophrys, whilst the female is in the ordinary plumage of (Estrelata neglecta. They 

 were taken by Mr. Bethune himself from their breeding-burrow on Sunday Island. Indeed, Mr. Bethune 

 assures me that on every occasion he can remember— and he has collected many of these birds in the breeding 

 season— he has found the two kinds mated and breeding together. From this it might be inferred that the 

 difference of plumage is sexual. As against this view, however, I have to exhibit a specimen in an intermediate 

 state of plumage, the sides of the head and neck being very prettily rayed with dusky grey ; also an example 

 with a still whiter head than Mr. Bethune's male bird presents. All this goes to prove the correctness of 

 Mr. Salvin's contention as to the variability of this species in regard to plumage. It is perfectly clear, there- 

 fore, that (Estrelata leucophrys will not stand as a species 



At the same time that I submitted my specimens of (E. neglecta to Mr. Salvin I showed him also 

 a pair in entirely dark plumage, which seemed to me to belong to a distinct species, and which, in that case, I 

 proposed to dedicate to Captain Fairchild, who has done so much to increase our knowledge of the 

 birds inhabiting the outlying islands. Mr. Salvin expressed a strong belief that these were referable to 

 (E. neglecta in a dark phase of plumage, and said that nothing would satisfy him to the contrary 

 short of finding the dark-coloured birds nesting together apart from the lighter-coloured birds, and breeding 

 true. I felt bound to defer to the opinion of a naturalist who had made the Petrels his special study, 

 so I abstained from recording this supposed new form. The two specimens which I exhibit to-night 

 seem to prove that, in this case also, Mr. Salvin was right in referring the bird to (Estrelata neglecta. In one 

 of them the entire plumage is brownish- grey, darker on the upper surface, changing to brownish-black on the 

 wings and tail ; the primaries, secondaries, and tail-feathers being white in their basal portion, with white 

 shafts, darkening towards the tip. In the other specimen the under surface is much lighter, whilst on the 

 throat there are indications of a change to the pale-grey characteristic of ordinary specimens of (E. neglecta. 

 I think, therefore, we may pretty safely assume that this is the young state of that species. 



In Mr. Bethune's two specimens now exhibited the wing measures, from the flexure, exactly 1P75 in. ; 

 in my intermediate example it measures 12 in., and in the more matured one only 10*5 in. In the two 

 entirely dark birds the wing, as in the first-named, measures 1P75 in. The dark birds have brownish-black 

 legs and feet, whereas in all the others the tarsi are yellowish, and the toes 'sandalled' with black ; but 

 this difference is no doubt due to the immaturity of the former. 



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