92 
Brewster on a Petrel new to North America . 
New York. One of the laborers while ploughing an old corn- 
field, noticed it running in a freshly-turned furrow and despatched 
it with a stick. It was apparently exhausted, for it made no 
attempt to escape. This was early in April, 1880, probably 
not far from the fifth of the month, as I find its reception recorded 
on Mr. Knowlton’s books as April 10. A letter afterwards re- 
ceived from Mr. Smith confirms all of these facts, but adds noth- 
ing of interest, save that the farm “comprises what are known 
as flats, lying along the Genesee River, about forty miles south of 
Lake Ontario.” 
So much for the details of its capture ; resting as they do on 
the testimony of three different persons, who, at the time, were 
not aware of the importance of the case, there can be no doubt 
as to their entire authenticity. The specimen itself, through Mr. 
Woodman’s generosity, has recently come into my possession and 
to a consideration of its relationship I now invite the reader’s 
attention. 
In Dr. Coues’s invaluable monograph of the Petrels* (“Critical 
Review of the Family Procellariidae : Part iv ; — Embracing the 
yEstrelateae and the Prioneae”) , under the head of NEstrelata 
mollis (p. 151), occurs the following paragraph: — 
“ There is a specimen, No. 15,706, in the Smithsonian Museum 
from the Antarctic Ocean, by Mr. T. R. Peale, which, with the 
size and general appearance of mollis differs as follows : The 
under surfaces of the wings are, except just along the edges, 
purely and uninterruptedly white ; as much so as in Cookii. The 
inner vanes of all the primaries, instead of being simply duller 
and grayer than the outer, have trenchantly defined pure white 
areas ; these white spaces occupy the whole of the webs at the 
base ; as they extend more towards the apex they become less 
wide, leaving a narrow space of dark color along the inside of 
the shafts ; apically they terminate with an acutely pointed outline, 
which stretches towards the tips of the feather, and is bounded 
internally and externally by dark colored portions of the feather. 
The general pattern is exactly that seen in the primaries of most 
Lari ; and the definition of the two colored areas is as strict. 
In other respects the bird is like quite a young mollis , being dark 
colored both above and below ; but the tint of the clouding below 
is more intensely sooty than in any specimen of typical mollis I 
* Proc. Phil. Acad., May, 1866. 
