394 



STORMY PETREL. 



navigators in almost every quarter of the globe, and known 

 under the name of stormy petrels, formed several distinct 

 species ; consequently, relying on the labours of his predeces- 

 sors, he did not hesitate to name the subject of this chapter 

 the pelagica, believing it to be identical with that of Europe. 

 But the investigations of later ornithologists having resulted 

 in the conviction that Europe possessed at least two species of 

 these birds, it became a question whether or not those which 

 are common on the coasts of the United States would form a 

 third species ; and an inquiry has established the fact that the 

 American stormy petrel, hitherto supposed to be the true 

 pelagica, is an entirely distinct species. For this discovery 

 we are indebted to the labours of Mr Charles Bonaparte, from 

 whose interesting paper on the subject, published in the 

 Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 we shall take the liberty of making an extract. The author 

 of the paper in question first describes and figures the true 

 pelagica of the systems ; secondly, the Leacldi, a species 

 described by Temminck, and restricted to the vicinity of the 

 Island of St Kilda, but which the former found diffused over 

 a great part of the Atlantic, east of the Banks of Newfound- 

 land ; and thirdly, the species of our coasts. He also indicates 

 a fourth, which inhabits the Pacific Ocean ; but whether or 

 not this last be in reality a species different from those named, 

 has not yet been determined. 



" ' When I first procured this species,' says Mr Bonaparte, 

 ' I considered it a nondescript, and noted it as such ; the cita- 

 tion of Wilson's pelagica among the synonyms of the true 

 pelagica by the most eminent ornithologist of the age, M. 

 Temminck, not permitting a doubt of their identity. But 

 having an opportunity of inspecting the very individual from 

 which Wilson took his figure and drew up his description, I 

 was undeceived, by proving the unity of my specimens with 

 that of Wilson, and the discrepancy of these with that of 

 Temminck. The latter had certainly never seen an individual 

 from America, otherwise the difference between the two species 



