440 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Genus PELECANOIDES, Lacep, 
779. PELECANOIDES URINATEIX. 
THE DIVING PETREL. 
Procellaria urinatrix, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 560. Puffinuria urinatrix, Goulds 
B. Austr. vii. pi. 60. Pelecanoides urinatrix, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 827 ; 
Sharpe, Bep. Trans. Venus Exped. p. 114 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 115. 
Description. — The whole upper plomage^ wings, tail and sides of the face 
glossy black ; the superior scapulars fringed with white ; the lesser wing- 
coverts narrowly margined with whitish; the secondaries and tertiaries 
likewise margined with whitish ; the outer tail-feathers tipped with 
whitish ; sides of the neck and the whole lower plumage glistening white; 
the black of the hind neck coming forward along the sides of the 
breast. 
Younger birds have the fore neck and the sides of the neck mottled with 
brown. 
A nestling from the Auckland Islands has an extraordinary growth of 
long brownish down over the whole of the lower parts ; the upper plumage 
is similar to that of the adult^ but the white margins to the various parts 
mentioned above are broader. 
Irides very dark greyish brown ; base of the cutting-edge of the upper 
mandible and a line along the lower edge of the under mandible blue-grey ; 
tarsi and toes beautiful light blue ; webs transparent bluish white tinged 
with brown ; naked pouch hanging from the chin nearly black, and being 
very thin lies in folds like a Bat's wing. {Gould.) 
Length about 8 inches, tail 1"9_, wing 4*8, tarsus 1, bill from gape I, the 
tail is quite square. 
The Diving Petrel is included by Dr. Jerdon in his ' Birds of India/ on 
the strength of a statement made by Sundevall that he observed it in the 
Bay of Bengal. 
This bird is found chiefly in the southern hemisphere, more especially 
from Australia to Cape Horn. 
This diminutive sea-bird swims about on the surface of the sea, diving 
habitually after shrimps and small fish. It flies unwillingly, and when on 
the wing it skims along the surface of the water. 
