308 



AVIFAUNA OF LATSAN, ETC. 



14 OCEANODROMA FULIGINOSA (Gm.). 



Sooty Petrel, Latham, Gen. Syn. B. iii. pt. 2, p. 409 (1785) ("Otaheite" !). 

 Procellaria fuliginosa, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 562 (1788) {ex Latham !). 



Oceanodroma fuliginosa, Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xvi. p. 620 (1893) ; Salvin, Cat. Birds lirit. 

 Mus. xxv. p. 352 (1896) ; Schaujnsland, Drei Monate Korallenins. p. 101, no. 19 (1899) (enumerated 

 among the birds breeding on Laysan). 



Professor Scliauinsland did not meet with this Petrel alive when on Laysan, but from 

 the examination of some fragments of skeletons which he had picked up, he concluded 

 that another, hitherto unrecorded species of Petrel, with one nostril- opening, must occur 

 there. This is, in fact, the case, for months after he had left a new species arrived in 

 small numbers, and bred, like the others, in holes. One skin was sent to the Bremen 

 Museum and determined by Professor Reichenow as Oceanodroma fuliginosa. I am 

 obliged to Prof. Scliauinsland for having lent me this example for description. There 

 seems to be doubt that this bird is the same as that called O. fuliginosa by Dr. Stejneger 

 and also in the < Catalogue of Birds,' vol. xxv. Another question is, whether there is 

 sufficient reason to refer it to Latham's « Sooty Petrel," and consequently to adopt 

 Gmelin's name. The original description would suit many deep-brown species of 

 approximately the same size, and is evidently equally well applicable to Bulweria 

 anjinho, or more still to B. macgillivrayi from Fiji, and Cymodroma mcestissima from 

 Samoa ! As Latham's bird is from " Otaheite " it is necessary for us to receive so-called 

 O. fuliginosa from there, to prove beyond doubt that the birds from the Japanese seas 

 and Laysan are really rightly called 0. fuliginosa. In Latham's description the slaty 

 colour of the upperside is not mentioned, the brown rump of Latham is not marked in 

 the modern bird, and the underside is brown (not slaty), but not paler than the upper- 

 side ! The example from Laysan measures :— Wing 7*3 inches, tail 4*1, forked for 125, 

 culmen (over curve) 0-8, bill from gape 1*1, metatarsus 1-15, middle toe with claw 115. 

 Nasal tube rather prominent. (Sex not determined on label.) 



15. Phalacrocorax pelagicus, Pall. 



One female, Laysan, 22. 10. 1896. Head brown, with whitish edges to the feathers ; 

 rest of plumage blackish brown, with some few white filamentous feathers scattered 

 over the neck and back. Bill from end of feathering on forehead to tip 51*5 mm., 

 wing 282 mm. (=11-1 inches), tail 185 mm. ( = 7*3 inches). 



I have examined specimens, mostly single ones, of all these fifteen species, with the 

 exception of Tringa americana and Grymophilus fulicarius. 



