16. OCEANODROMA FURCATA (Gm.). 



(GREY FORK-TAILED PETREL.) 



(Plate 11.) 



Fork-tailed Petrel, Penn., Arctic Zool., II., p. 255 (1785). 

 Procellaria furcata, Gm., Syst. Nat., I., p. 561 (1788). 

 Procellaria orientalis, Pall., Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat., II., p. 315 (1811). 

 Pachyptila furcata, Steph., in Shaw's Gen. Zool., XIII., p. 255 (1826). 

 Thalassidroma furcata, Gray, List Anseres, Brit. Mus., p. 161 (1844). 

 Oceanodroma furcata, Bp., Consp. Av., II., p. 194 (1856) ; Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 

 XXV., p. 357 (1896). 



Pulchre margaritaceo-cinereus, subtus vix pallidior. 



This species is easily distinguished by its pearly-grey colour above and below. 



The range of 0. furcata is from the Aleutian Islands and Copper Island in Bering Sea, 

 where it breeds, south to California. It also occurs at Plover Bay in North-Eastern 

 Siberia, according to Mr. E. W. Nelson (Report Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, No. 3, p. 64, 

 1887). 



Mr. Nelson (I. c.) writes : — " The Aleutian Islands form the main home of this 

 elegant bird, which is seen in the North Pacific for one or two hundred miles south from 

 the islands, but the passes and waters within a few miles of the outer shores afford 

 them their most frequented haunts. In the middle of June, 1877, they were common 

 off shore west of Nunivak Island, in Bering Sea, and they are frequent autumnal 

 visitants to all parts of this sea. I obtained several specimens at St. Michael's, usually 

 during October. The Eskimo find them even after the sea is covered with ice. At such 

 times they are generally near an air-hole, and in several cases were captured alive, being 

 too weak from starvation to escape. They are also sometimes found on the Lower 

 Yukon, and, strangely enough, one was captured about 75 miles up the Janana River, 

 where the bird was sitting on the ice near an air-hole in November. During the cruise 

 of the ' Corwin,' in 1881, these Petrels were seen on several occasions in Bering Straits 

 and about St. Lawrence Island, and in Plover Bay, Siberia. 



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