PROCELL ARIA GLACI ALOIDES, Smith. 
Silvery-grey Petrel. 
Procellaria Glacialoides, Smith, Zool. of South Africa, Ayes, pi. 51.— Forst. Drawings, No. 91— List of Birds in 
Bi'it. Mus. Coll., part iii. p. 162. 
During my voyages to and from Australia I saw numerous examples of this bird, both in the Atlantic and 
Pacific. I first met with it oflf the Cape of Good Hope, and it was frequently seen from thence across 
the South Indian Ocean to New South Wales ; I subsequently observed it between Sydney and Cape 
Horn ; it was numerous off the Falkland islands, and I possess specimens killed on the shores of New 
Zealand. One of the finest specimens I possess was captured by me with a hook and line, and thus 
afforded Mrs. Gould an opportunity of making the accompanying beautiful drawing from life. It was a 
species which particularly interested me while at sea, as much for its familiar habits as for its peculiar 
actions and mode of flight : with the exception of the Cape Petrel (D option Capensis'), no species was more 
readily taken with a baited hook. In its structure it is also most closely allied to that species ; like that 
bird it has very broad primaries, giving an appearance of great breadth to the end of the wing, has the same 
number of feathers (14) in the tail, and the nostrils placed in a single tube. 
Dr. Smith, who was the first to discriminate the characters which distinguish this species, remarks that, 
“ In many respects it has a strong resemblance to the Procellaria glacialis of authors ; the length of the 
bill, however, is not only greater, hut the thickness is also different, being inferior to that of P. glacialis , 
and neither are ever otherwise in any individual of the Cape species .... It often hunts for its food in the 
neighbourhood of the South African coasts, and even frequently enters the bays, apparently for the same 
purpose. It flies higher above the surface of the water than the smaller species, rests more frequently, and 
seems well-disposed to feed upon dead animal matter, when such can be procured.” 
All the upper surface and tail delicate silvery grey ; outer webs, shafts, a line along the inner webs, and 
the tips of the primaries and the outer webs of the secondaries slaty black ; face and all the under surface 
pure silky white; irides brownish black ; nostrils, culmen, and a portion of the base of the upper mandible 
bluish lead-colour; tips of both mandibles fleshy horn-colour, deepening into black at their points; 
remainder of the bill pinky flesh-colour ; legs and feet grey, washed with pink on the tarsi and blotched with 
slaty black on the joints. 
The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size. 
