159 



AESTRELATA HAS I TATA (KUHL). 



Procellaria hasitata (sic) Kuhl, Beitr. z. Zool. Temminck, PI. Col. 416 (1826); Gould, B 



Australia VII, pi. 47 (1845). 

 Procellaria diabolica Lafresnaye, Rev. Zool. 1844, P* x 68. 



Procellaria meridionalis Lawrence, Ann. Lyceum N.Y. IV, p. 475 (1848 — ), 

 V, pi. 15, p. 220 (1852). 



Procellaria rubritarsi Newton, Zoologist 1852, p. 3692 (ex Gould's MS., descr. nulla). 

 Aestrelata haesitata Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. XLII, p. 768 (1856), Elliot, B. N. America II. 



pi. 60, fig. 1 (1868) ; Rothsch. & Hart, New Edition of " Naumann " XII, p. 20 (1903). 

 Aestrelata diabolica Bonap., Consp. Av. II, p, 189 (1855). 



Oestrelata haesitata Newton, Ibis 1870, p. 277; Dresser, B. Europe VIII, p. 545, pi. 618 

 (1880); Stevens, B. of Norfolk, III, p. 361, pi. 4 (1890) ; Salvin, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXV, 

 p. 403 (1896). 



MR. SAUNDERS describes this bird as follows: "The adult has the 

 crown and nape dark brown, hind-neck white, cheeks and ear-coverts 

 greyish ; mantle dark brown ; upper tail-coverts white ; central 

 tail-feathers chiefly brownish-black, the rest more or less white on their 

 basal portions but broadly edged with brown; forehead and under-parts 

 white; bill black; legs and feet dusky-yellow. Length 16 inches, wing 

 11-3 inches. The immature bird is believed to be mottled with brown on 

 the forehead and to be duller in tint on the upper parts." 



Though evidently not quite extinct, it seems certain that the fate of 

 this bird is sealed. In former times it used to breed in great numbers on 

 several of the West Indian Islands: Hayti, Guadeloupe, and Dominica. Its 

 last breeding place was the Morne au Diable or Morne Diablotin on Dominica. 

 There it was searched for in vain by Colonel Feilden, in 1889, who wrote 

 a lengthy article about it in the "Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Society 

 V. p. 24-39. Mr. Selwyn Branch again, ten years later, ascended La Morne 

 au Diable, and found the old breeding places deserted. The "Manicou," 

 evidently an introduced North-American Opossum, Mongoose and rats had 

 entirely extirpated the " Diable." 



Two-and-a-half centuries ago Pere du Tertre found this Petrel breeding 

 on Guadeloupe, and Pere Labat, about forty years later, found it in great 

 numbers, and gave a long, graphic description of it in his " Nouveau Voyage 

 aux isles de l'Amerique" (Edit. I, Vol. II, pp. 349-353). These birds were 

 then known as the "Diable" or "Diablotin," and their flesh was highly 

 esteemed, and they were even salted and exported to Martinique and other 

 French islands in great numbers. 



