Family-hydro B ATI D^. 
Genus— O CEANITES. 
OcEANiTES Keyserling und Blasius, Die Wirbelthiere 
Europa’s, p. xciii., 1840 
(Also spelt Oceanitis.) 
Garrodia W. A. Forbes, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1881, 
^ 3 * •• •• •• •• •• ** 
Pealea Ridgway, Auk, Vol. III., p. 334, 1886 
Small Petrels, with long legs, webbed feet, weak bills, long wings, and medium 
tails. The bill is shorter than the head, and the nostrils are placed in a tube 
lying on the culmen. The wing has the second primary the longest, the first 
usually shorter than the third ; the secondaries are ten in number. The tail 
consists of twelve rectrices, and may be even or slightly forked. The tarsus 
is booted, or covered in front with transverse oblique scutes. The middle toe 
is longest, and the hind one very minute. 
In the genus Oceanites I include the species hitherto referred to the genera 
Garrodia and Pealea, which I propose to suppress, the only differences being 
that in Oceanites the tarsus is booted, in Garrodia the tarsus is scutellated, while 
Pealea has the scutes indistinct. I find from an examination of half a dozen 
specimens of Oceanites gracilis Elliot that, though five are booted, the sixth 
shows indistinctly, signs of scutellation. In Oceanites and Garrodia the first 
primary is shorter than the third, in Pealea the reverse is the case. 
The above diagnosis will separate the species of this genus from those 
of Hydrobates, in which genus the legs are short, the secondaries thirteen or 
more in number, and the tarsus is covered with hexagonal scales. 
Type 0. oceanicus. 
Type 0. nereis. 
Type 0. lineatus. 
VOL. II. 
9 
