MONOGRAPH OF THE PETRELS. 



Buller records (E. incerta as an inhabitant of the New Zealand Seas, but does not 

 consider it more plentiful than its ally, (E. lessoni (Birds New Zealand, 2nd ed., II., 

 p. 220, 1888). In the Leyden Museum is a specimen said by Schlegel to have come 

 from Australian waters ; it was obtained from the Maison Verreaux in 1863, and a 

 young bird in down received at the same time was said to be from New Caledonia. I 

 am inclined to doubt the correctness of the latter identification. 



As is the case of other Petrels, (E. incerta occasionally wanders far northward, since 

 a specimen was obtained in 1870, near the village of Zolinki, in the county of Zips, 

 in North Hungary. This bird, which is now in the Hungarian National Museum at 

 Budapest, was identified by Von Pelzeln as an immature (Estrelata hcesitata, 

 as recorded by Mr. Eagle Clarke (Ibis, 1884, p. 202). Dr. Von Madarasz, however, 

 very kindly sent the specimen to England, and Dr. Bowdler Sharpe identified it as 

 undoubtedly (E. incerta. 



No notes on the habits of Schlegel's Fulmar have been published, in fact, very 

 little is known about the species, and it is by no means unlikely that (E. incerta may 

 be only the dark phase of (E. lessoni. I consider this to be a more probable solution 

 than that it should be the young of (E. lessoni, as the late Professor Elliot Coues once 

 suggested (Pr. Acad. Philad., 1866, p. 147). In addition to the similarity in dimensions, 

 (E. incerta has the blackish mark in front of and round the eye, which is such a 

 conspicuous feature in (E. lessoni, and this tends to confirm my belief that it is the 

 brown phase of the last-named bird. 



Adult. General colour above brown, with a slight shade of ashy ; scapulars rather 

 darker and more blackish-brown towards their ends ; wing-coverts rather darker brown 

 than the back, the greater series washed with ashy-grey externally ; primary-coverts and 

 quills blackish, the primaries ashy on their inner webs, the secondaries dark brown, 

 like the scapulars ; crown of head, sides of face and cheeks brown like the back, 

 with a blackish shade extending from the fore-part of the eye over the ear-coverts ; 

 throat and fore-neck brown, the former mottled with white bases to the feathers, and 

 rather paler and more ashy-brown ; remainder of under-surface from the fore-neck 

 downwards pure white, the sides of the body very slightly washed with ashy-brown ; 

 under tail-coverts brown, with white bases, the central ones for the most part white, 

 with brown centres towards the ends of the feathers ; under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries dark brown ; quills dusky-brown below, more ashy along the inner web. 

 Total length about 18 inches ; culmen, 1.6 ; wing, 12.7 ; tail, 5.3 ; tarsus, 1.7 ; middle 

 toe and claw, 2.4. 



The specimen described and figured is an adult bird obtained by Dr. A. B. Meyer 

 in the Cape Seas, formerly in our collection, and now in the British Museum. 



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