Order PEOCELLARIIFOEMES.l 



/ *t y 



[Family PROCELLAKIIDJE. 



PRION BREVIR08TRI8-. 



(SHORT-BILLED DOVE PETREL.) 



Prion brevirostris, Gould, P.Z.S., 1855, p. 88. 



When Mr. Salvin, in 1893, was characterising his (Estrelata axillaris, from the Chatham Islands, 

 he called my attention to the remarkable external resemblance of this form to Prion desolatus, the 

 body being only a little larger, the plumage darker, the bill black, and the axillary plumes black 

 instead of white. 



Just before my departure from New Zealand, in 1889, I purchased from Mr. W. Smyth, the 

 well-known taxidermist in Dunedin, a supposed Prion desolatus, which had been taken on the 



PRION BREVIROSTRIS AND P. DESOLATUS. 



Otago coast. I detected at once an important difference in the bill, which was more like that of 

 (Estrelata. I brought the specimen to England with me and, with Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's assist- 

 ance, made a careful comparison of it with the large series of Prions in the British Museum. We 

 both came to the conclusion that it was inseparable from Gould's Prion brevirostris, well 

 represented in the Museum, which had hitherto been referred to P. desolatus. At first 

 sight it seemed as if this was an even more remarkable case of mimicry than Mr. Salvin's 

 (Estrelata axillaris, the two birds being quite indistinguishable except for the bill. On relaxing 

 the skin, however, to enable me to inspect the mouth, I discovered, under the magnifying glass, 

 the peculiar lamellated structure which characterises the genus Prion. That Mr. Gould, however, 

 was justified in separating this species from P. desolatus will, I think, be made sufficiently 

 manifest by the above illustration of the two heads (from a drawing by Mr. Keulemans), the 

 upper figure representing this species and the lower one the well-known Prion desolatus. 



Mr. Gould's type came from Madeira ; but there are specimens in the British Museum from 

 Kerguelen's Land, Australia, and New Zealand. The Prions habitually consort in large flocks, 

 and no doubt this species will yet prove to be very abundant in the New Zealand seas. The 

 late Professor Kirk wrote : 



In 1891 I visited the Snares, and was filled with amazement at the number of Petrels that made their 

 appearance on the approach of evening. From the surface of the sea to the greatest height at which it was 

 possible to distinguish them they were to be seen in myriads, and gave me such an idea of their vast numbers 

 as I had never before been able to realise ; while their rapid but graceful evolutions were a never-ending 

 source of pleasure. The scene reminded one of the countless vistas of stars opened to the eye of the observer 

 through a good telescope, or, perhaps better still, of the ever advancing and receding hosts of bacteria to be 

 seen in infusions under a, high power of the microscope. 



