Oedee TUBINAEES.] 
[Fam. PEOCELLAEIID^. 
THALASS(ECA ANTAECTICA. 
(ANTARCTIC PETREL.) 
Antarctic Petrel, Lath. Gen. Syn. iii. pt. 2, p. 400 (1785). 
Procellaria antarctica, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 565 (1788, ex Lath.). 
Priocella antarctica, Hombr. & Jacq. Voy. Pole Sud, p. 149 (1844). 
Procellaria antarctica. Gray, Voy. Ereb. and Terror, pi. 33 (1846). 
Thalassoica antarctica, Reich. Naturg. Schwimmv., Natatores, pi. xiv. (1848). 
Thalassoeca antarctica. Cones, Proc. Phil. Acad. 1866, p. 31. 
Fulmartis antarcticus. Gray, Hand-1, of B. iii. p. 105 (1871). 
Priocella antarctica. Hector, Trans. N.-Z. Inst. vol. ix. p. 464 (1877). 
Procellaria antarctica, Buller, Man. Birds of New Zealand, p. 88 (1882). 
Aeipetes antarcticus, Porbes, Voy. of Chall., Anat. Petrels, p. 59 (1882). 
Ad. pileo colloqne toto, cum scapularibus et tectricibus alarum minimis, fuliginoso-cinereis : gula et colli 
lateralibus brunnescentibus ; secundariis et tectricibus alarum albis : corpore reliquo pure albo : cauda 
fuliginoso-nigro terminate. : rostro bruunescenti-nigro : pedibus pallide brunuescenti-cinereis. 
Adult. Head, hind neck, and general upper surface dull brownish black ; on the throat and sides of the neck 
the brown fades off into the white ; the rest of the under surface pure white, except a broad band along the 
edge of the wings, which is slaty brown ; primaries brownish black, white on their inner webs except at the 
tips ; the whole of the secondaries and their large coverts are pure white, presenting a broad oblique band 
in the closed wing ; scapulars brownish black, white at the base ; tail-featbers pure white, Avith a broad 
terminal band of dull brownish black. Irides and bill black ; legs and feet dull yellow, brownish on the 
outer side of tarsi and on the outer toes. Total length 19'5 inches; wing, from flexure, 12; tail 5 ; bill, 
along the ridge 1‘75, along the edge of lower mandible 2 ; tarsus 1'75 ; middle toe and claw 2'5. 
I AM still in doubt as to the propriety of admitting this species into our avifauna, the specimen 
described by Sir James Hector having been shot in lat. 46° S., long. 118° 9' E., or about “ 1000 miles 
west of Tasmania and in the latitude of Otago.” It was included by Mr. G. R. Gray among the 
birds of New Zealand in the ‘ Voyage of the Erebus and Terror ’ ; and one or more of the five specimens 
in the British Museum are said to have been captured in our seas, but the evidence is by no means 
complete. 
Forbes proposed to make this Petrel the type of a genus, Aeipetes, which he says is 
“ easily distinguishable from Thalassoeca by the much shorter and more slender bill, and differently 
shaped nasal tubes; number of rectrices 12 instead of 14 as in Thalassoeca and 16 in Ossifraga-, 
tracheal septum incomplete, and the structure of the syrinx different.” 
