127 



A specimen (adult male) in my collection gives the following measurements : length, 7'75 ; 

 wing from flexure, 4'25 ; tarsus '8. 



Sir Wyville Thomson writes (H.M.S. 'Challenger,' vol. i., p. 359) : "It is to be seen on the 

 surface of the water in Eoyal Sound, when the water is calm, in very large flocks. On two 

 days, when excursions were made in the steam pinnace, the water was seen to be covered with 

 these birds in flocks, extending over acres, which were black with them." 



Dr. Coppinger, in the ' Cruise of the Alert,' records capturing a specimen of P. urinatrix 

 on the west coast of Patagonia. 



This is the species about which Mr. Moseley writes from Kerguelen's Land : "A Petrel 

 that has given up the active aerial habits of its allies, and has taken to diving and has become 

 specially modified by natural selection to suit it for that changed habit, though still a Petrel in 

 essential structure." 



Mr. M. J. Mcoll met with this Diving Petrel in the Straits of Magellan and in Smythe's 

 Channel. He writes : " The stomach of this species is very large and soft, and is apparently little 

 more than an enlargement of the proventriculus, having no visible muscular system ; those 

 examined were filled with fishes." 



A circumstance that has not yet been recorded is that some examples of this Petrel have a 

 pungent natural odour — very different from the ordinary Petrel-smell — resembling that of a wild 

 goat, and so inherent in the plumage that I have been able to detect it in a preserved specimen 

 after a lapse of five years or more. 



i a 



PELECANOIDES EXSUL. 



(LAEGER DIVING PETREL.) 



Pelecanoides exsul, Salvin, Cat. B. Brit. Mus., vol. xxvi., p. 438. 



This is the larger form of Diving Petrel, of which I have received specimens from Stephen's 

 Island and from the Island of Karewa, in the Bay of Plenty. 



Ad. — Length, 8 inches ; wing from flexure, 4'5 ; tarsus, '8 ; bill, along the ridge, '55, along 

 the edge of lower mandible, '9 ; breadth of bill at end of nasal tube, '25. 



This species occurs on the Auckland Islands. 



It is thus distinguished by Mr. Salvin (' Brit. Mus. Cat.,' xxv., p. 438) : 



Adult. — Similar to P. urinatrix, but the feathers of the sides and middle of the throat with a distinct 

 subterminal grey bar ; flanks mottled with grey, each feather with a grey shaft ; under wing-coverts also grey, 

 with white edges and dark shafts. 



Mr. Gould, in his ' Birds of Australia,' includes P. gamoti from Peru as a synonym of P. 

 urinatrix, in which he is followed by Dr. Coues ; but Dr. Sharpe considers that P. gamoti 

 " must be held to be distinct on account of its very much larger size." 



