Order PB0CELLARIIF0RME8 
Family ^YDROBATIDM 
No. 79. 
FREGETTA TROPICA MELANOGASTER. 
BLACK-BELLIED STORM-PETREL. 
(Plate 71.) 
Thalassidroma MELANOGASTER Gould, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIII., p. 367, 1844 ; 
South Indian Ocean (Islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam). 
Procellaria oceanica Bonaparte (not Kuhl), Zool. Journ., Vol. III., p. 89, 1827. 
Thalassidroma melanogaster Gould, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIII., p. 367, 1844 ; id., 
Birds Austr., Vol. VII., PI. 62, 1847 ; Hutton, Ibis, 1867, p. 189 ; Layard, ib,, 1867, 
p. 459. 
Fregetta melanogastra Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. II., p. 198, 1857 ; Coues, Proc. 
Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1864, p. 87. 
Fregetta melanogaster Gould, Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. II., p. 479, 1865 ; Buller, Birds 
New Zeal., 2nd ed., Vol. II., p. 249, 1888; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs Brit. Mus., Vol. I., 
p. 151, 1901 ; Sharpe, Rep. “ Southern Cross,” p. 141, 1902 ; Buller, Suppl. Birds 
New Zeal., Vol. I., p. 99, 1905 ; Wilson, National Antarct. Exp., Aves, p. 79, 
1907 ; Mathews, Handl. Birds Austral., p. 16, 1908. 
Procellaria melanogastra Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Vol. VI., Procell., p. 6, 1863. 
Procellaria {Fregetta) meZawog'uster Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. II., p. 203, 1877. 
Cymodroma melanogaster Salvin, Cat. Birds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXV., p. 364, 1896 (pars) ; 
Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. Birds, p. 874, 1901 ; Hall, Key Birds Austr., p. 92, 
1906 ; Godman, Monogr. Petrels, p. 59, 1907 (pars) ; Littler, Handb. Birds Tasm., 
p. 162, 1910. 
Distribution. Austrahan seas (Southern Ocean northwards to the Bay of Bengal). 
Adult male. General colour above sooty-black, including the head and neck all round, 
breast, back, wings, and tail ; the feathers of the back narrowly fringed with white 
like the scapulars and median wing-coverts ; the feathers on the middle of the 
abdomen and under tail-coverts sooty-black with white bases ; upper tail-coverts 
and feathers on the sides of the rump pure white ; outer tail-feathers white at the 
base ; sides of the body and the inner under wing-coverts white, as also the 'axillaries ; 
small coverts round the margin of the under- wing sooty-black ; bill and feet black, 
iris brown. Total length 201 mm. ; culmen (exp.) 14, wing 157, tail 76, tarsus 35. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Nest. In the crevice of a rock. 
Egg. Clutch one ; dull white, minutely and sparingly dotted all over with small pink dots ; 
axis 37 mm., diameter 27 (Kerguelen Island). 
VOL. II. 
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