OCEANODROMA CASTRO. 



Ogilvie-Grant (Nov. Zool., XII., p. 96), and again on the Cape Verde Islands, as recorded 

 above. 



Few notes on the habits of this Storm-Petrel have been published. It was seen 

 in some numbers by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant flying round the steam-tug on his voyage to the 

 Desertas and Porto Santo, where it breeds. Lieut. Boyd Alexander states that in the 

 Cape Verde Islands, the burrows of this species run further into the ground, and are 

 more tortuous than those of Pelagodroma marina. He observes : — " When the night 

 shadows began to brood vaguely over the lone wastes of the Rombos Islands, the 

 Petrels came abroad and filled the still air with their weird cries. They mustered 

 strongly, flitting to and fro over the low-lying ground in hundreds. Among the number 

 the most noticeable was Puffinus assimilis, as it glided like some large soft-winged 

 bat over the small sand-hills, and even brushing past our camp-fire, for ever uttering 

 its weird cry, ' karki-karrou, karki-karrou, karki-karrou,' while amid these a similar 

 but softer one would often strike fitfully upon the ear, coming from Oceanodroma 

 castro as it flitted over the island." 



The egg of 0. castro is white, without any gloss, with a more or less evident 

 zone of reddish dots round one end, but these dots are never conspicuous. 

 Specimens in the British Museum measure : axis, 1.25-1.4 inch ; diam., 0.95-1.05. 



Adult female. Above sooty brown, with a very distinct plumbeous gloss ; 

 scapulars and wing-coverts like the back, the greater series and the inner secondaries 

 rather more ashy-brown and narrowly fringed with white ; the innermost secondaries 

 sooty-brown like the back ; primary-coverts and quills black : upper tail-coverts 

 white, with broad black tips, some of the centre ones with a sub-terminal spot of black ; 

 tail-feathers black, the outer ones having a distinct patch of white at the base ; head 

 and neck, sides of face and throat with a more distinct ashy shade than the back ; 

 remainder of under-surface from the lower throat lighter than the back and more 

 smoky-brown ; median under tail-coverts also smoky -brown, but the lateral ones pure 

 white, or white shaded with ashy at the ends ; a patch of white feathers on the lower 

 flanks uniting with the white under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 smoky-brown like the breast ; quills blackish below, slightly more ashy on the inner 

 web. Total length about 7.5 inches ; culmen, 0.7 ; wing, 5.8 ; tail, 2.7 ; central 

 rectrices, 2.55 ; tarsus, 0.9 ; middle toe and claw, 0.9. 



Adult male. Similar to the female. Total length, about 7.5 inches; wing, 6.1. 



Nestlings (Desertas : Padre Schmitz). Covered with long woolly down of a 

 sooty-brown colour. 



The male described is from Villa Island, Santa Maria, Azores, and was presented 

 to the British Museum by Don J. S. G. de Camara. The female was procured on the 

 Desertas by Padre Schmitz. The specimen figured is a St. Helena bird in our 

 collection. 



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