188 PETREL. 



feather is square at the tip ; the colour of them and the quills deep 

 black ; and the latter exceed the tail a trifle in length ; legs slender, 

 one inch long, and black. 



Inhabits Otaheite. — Sir Joseph Banks. One, in a drawing in 

 possession of this gentleman, had each web of the toes marked with 

 a yellow spot. Observed too, in various parts of New-Holland, 

 and Van Diemen's Land ; but no where in greater plenty than in 

 Bass's Straits ; as about three Hummock Island, a stream of these 

 birds was seen early in the morning, passing the vessel on the 

 way to the windward ; probably composed of some millions ; and 

 supposed to have taken flight from some other Island not explored ;& 

 it is said also, that in Preservation Island, the crew of the Sydney 

 Cove ship subsisted for the most part on these birds, for more than 

 a year; yet at the end of that time, the returning flights in the evening 

 were as numerous as they had been observed to be on their first 

 arrival. 



20— FORK-TAILED PETREL. 



Procellaria furcata, Ind. Orn. ii. 825. Gm. Lin. i. 561. 

 Fork-tailed Petrel, Gen. Syn. vi. 410. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 463. 



LENGTH ten inches. Bill three quarters of an inch long, and 

 black ; the upper mandible very hooked at the end, and the tube of 

 the nostrils reaching some way on the top of it ; general colour of 

 the plumage dark silvery grey, paler beneath ; chin very pale grey; 

 vent white; on the forehead and crown a mixture of brown ; the 

 inner ridge of the wing dusky black ; quills blackish grey ; the 

 secondaries paler grey on the edges ; tail coverts pretty long ; the 

 tail itself the colour of the quills, and forked in shape ; the outer 

 feather white on the outer web ; the wings, when closed, equal the 

 tail in length ; legs black. 



Found among the ice, between- Asia and America. 



* See. Col/in. Bot. Bay. Vol. ii. pp. 151. 172. 



