436 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Genus PTERODROMA Bp.* 



Pterodroma Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. Acad., Paris, xlii, p. 768 (1856 — 

 Type by subsequent designation of Coues, 1866, P. macroptera). 



Differ at a glance from Puffinus by comparatively deeper and 

 shorter bill ; horny distal portion of upper mandible is compara- 

 tively longer and depressed middle part is shorter, less than half 

 length of whole bill. Nostrils on top of culmen, with a distinct 

 dividing membrane. Tarsus not compressed as in Puffinus, front 

 rounded, without sharp ridge. Claws sharp -pointed. Wings 

 comparatively shorter, 1st developed primary longest. Tail more 

 or less pointed, short, cuneiform. 12 rectrices. About 30 species 

 in all oceans. 



Key to species of genus Pterodroma. 



, / Wing under 250 mm. 

 \ Wing over 250 mm. 



P. brevipes, p. 439 



2 /Under tail-coverts white ..... P. hasitata, p. 438 



\ Under tail-coverts grey-brown .... P. neglecta, p. 436 



PTERODROMA NEGLECTA 



345. Pterodroma neglecta (Schleg.)— KERMADEC PETREL.f 



Procellaria neglecta Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas., vi, Procell., p. 10 

 (1863 — Kermadec Islands). 



(Estrelata neglecta (Schlegel), Newstead and Coward, P.Z.S., 1908, p. 433 ; 

 Brit. B., 11, p. 14 ; C. Oldham, Bull. B.O.C., xxi, p. 101. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter and summer. — 

 Very variable especially on head and under -parts. Crown and 

 nape varying from white lightly spotted and finely streaked brown 

 (most feathers having small subterminal tips and shaft-streaks of 

 brown) to sooty black-brown with white proximal portions of feather 

 entirely concealed, intermediate examples differ in width of brown 

 at tips of feathers and depth of colour ; rest of upper-parts dark 

 brown to sooty black-brown, feathers tipped slightly paler and white 

 proximal portions of feathers sometimes not entirely concealed ; 

 lores and under eye in darker examples usually somewhat speckled 

 white and in paler examples speckled brown ; under-parts varying 

 from white to almost uniform slate-brown or sooty-brown with 

 white proximal parts of feathers mostly concealed, " white " 

 examples have feathers of chin and sides of face and neck and 

 occasionally some on breast and belly with very narrow brown 



* The generic name Pterodroma antedates (Estrelata, 1857, which is 

 generally erroneously quoted as having been published in 1855. — E.H. 



f Procellaria phillipii Gray has been erroneously quoted as a synonym 

 of P. neglecta, and the name of Phillip's Petrel (or " Fulmar ") cannot be used, 

 as P. phillipii is a different species — cf. footnote in Handl. Brit. B., p. 154, 

 and Iredate. Ibis, 1914, p. 433. As, however, Godman (Mon. Petrels) called 

 P. incerta Schlegel's Petrel, P. neglecta should have another English name, and 

 we adopt " Kermadec Petrel " (cf. Ibis, 1914, p. 434). 



