Oebee TUBINAEES.] 
[Fam. PEOCELLAEIID^. 
PUFFINUS CHLOEOKHYNCHUS. 
(WEDGE-TAILED SHEAEWATER.) 
Puffiniis cMororJiynclios, Less. Traite d’Orn. p. 612 (1831). 
Puffinus sphetiurus, Gould, Ann. & Mag. N. H. xiii. p. 365 (1844). 
Thiellus clilororhynclia, Bonap. Consp. Av. ii. p. 201 (1850). 
Thiellus splienurus, Bonap. ibid. 
Procellaria cMororhyncha, Schl. Mus. Pays-Bas, Procell. p. 25 (1863). 
Procellaria sphmura, Schl. ibid. 
Puffinus chlororhynchus, Salvin, Ibis, 1888, p. 352. 
Ad. omninb scWstaceo-fuliginosus, interscapulio scapularibusque ad apicem pallidioribus : gala et jugulo anteriore 
schistaceis : abdomine crissoque et supracaudalibus saturate brunneo tiiictis : rostro grisescenti-nigro, apice 
et culmine obscurioribus : pedibus flaveseenti-brunneis. 
Adult. General plumage dark slaty brown, ebanging to dark slaty grey on the throat and fore neck ; the 
feathers composing the mantle edged with grey ; flanks, upper portion of abdomen, with upper and lower 
tail-coverts more strongly tinged with brown ; quills and tail-feathers slaty black with polished shafts ; 
lining of wings uniform slaty grey. Irides black; bill greyish black ; legs and feet yellowish brown. 
Total length 17 inches ; wing 10-25 ; tail 6 ; bill, along the ridge I'S, along the edge of lower mandible 19 ; 
tarsus 1-7 ; middle toe and claw 2'3. 
Obs. In the female the general plumage is more suffused with brown. 
Note. Mr. Salvin’s collection contains a New-Zealand example. There is a specimen from Lord Howe^s Island 
in the British Museum, and another from the Seychelles, received from Canon Tristram. 
Me. Salvin writes (Ibis, 1888, p. 352) “ Lesson’s type of his P. chlororhynchus in the Paris Museum 
was brought from Australia (Baie cles Chiens Marins), so Pucheran tells us, by Quoy and Gaimard in 
1820. Those writers who have attempted to separate it from P. sphenurus of Gould attribute to it a 
more western range, extending from Western Australia to the Mascarene Islands and the Cape of 
Good Hope, and reserve the name of P. sphemirus for the more eastern bird, giving its range 
‘ Australian Seas.’ Gould’s types of P. sphenurus, however, came from Houtmann’s Abrolhos, off the 
coast of W. Australia, so that the difference of habitat breaks down. I have compared specimens 
from the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Rodriguez), Rame’s Islet (N.W. Australia), Bird Islet 
(N. Australia), Norfolk L, Lord Howe’s I., Eimeo (Society I.), and New Zealand, and fail to see how 
any separation can be maintained. The Mascarene birds have perhaps a rather stouter bill, the 
colour of which in the skin is more of a fleshy yellow ; but these differences seem to me to be of little 
importance, as intermediate specimens occur. The slight difference in size is not more than occuis 
in most birds having so wide a range. Gould’s figure represents a bird with a dark bill, but his 
description gives it as ‘ reddish fleshy-brown, darker on the culmen and tip. We have two skins 
said to have come from New Zealand, where its occurrence, at least on the shores of the North 
Island, can hardly fail to be established.” 
A specimen of the egg in my son’s collection, from Lord Howe's Island, is rathei ovoido-elliptical 
in form, measuring 2-5 inches in length by 1-5 in breadth, and is perfectly white. 
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