THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
name was given as THE BROWN-BACKED PETREL. It is quite certain 
that the name has been misapplied. 
The same year (1844) Gray {Genera of Birds, Vol. III., p. 647) included 
Nectris nugax, Sol. MS., in the synonymy of Pufflnus assimilis Gould. 
In 1857 Bonaparte {Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. II., p. 204) proposed for a bird 
wrongly called P . obscurus the name P. haroli, the description of which follows : — 
'' Puffinus haroli. Mus. Taurin. no. 3202 a Bonellio 1820 ex Mediterraneo ; Coll. Bailloni 
Abatis villae ex Insula deserta prope Maderam. Mus. Paris, a Bertheloto ex Insulis Canariis ; 
niinor obscurior et rostro etiam graciliore If poll, longo ; similis Puff, anglorum, sed minor et 
dilutiore , subtus et in lateribus fere abrupte candidus ; alis caudam truncate -rotundatam 
superantibus; rostro gracillimo, longitudine tarsi sesquipollicaris ; pedibus nigricantibus, 
macula interdigitali flava expansa.’^ 
The second two specimens included by Bonaparte are undoubtedly referable 
to a form breeding on the Madeiran and Canary Islands, but the first was 
supposed to be a specimen of the Mediterranean Puffinus yelkouan Acerbi, 
and the name P. haroli was therefore included in the synonymy of that species. 
But from an examination of this specimen we get the following {JMionograpTi 
of the Petrels, p. 126, footnote) : “ Count Salvadori has recently informed me 
that P . haroli, Temm. (in Mus. Taurin., as above), is a synonym of the present 
species (P. ohscurus) and not of P. yelJcouanus, to which I had united it.” 
This, of course, makes it certain that Puffinus haroli Bonaparte must be 
used for the form of Little Shearwater breeding on the Madeiran, Canary and 
other groups off the north-east coast of Africa, to which I will revert later. 
On the succeeding page Bonaparte also used Puffinus nugax Sol. MS. in 
preference to P. assimilis Gould, and in this he was followed bv Coues in 1864. 
but the latter soon rectified his mistake. 
Bonaparte’s idea of his P. nugax Solander is as follows : — 
“ Ex Austr. Pacif. mar. Similis praecedentibus (P. yelhouan) sed etiam minor, alis 
longioribus et rostro valde graciliore. Minimus ; nigro-plumbeus ; subtus et in loris, super- 
ciliis, lateribusque abrupte albus ; rostro nigricante ; pedibus plumbeis, palamis [sic] 
flavescentibus.” 
I have introduced this as he added a variety thus : — 
“ a. hailloni Bp. (Puff, obscurus, Coll. BaiU.) ex Insula Franciae. Minimus ; nigricans ; 
subtus abrupte a rostro candidus.” 
In the Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 1864, p. 139, Coues introduced a new species, 
Pufjp^nus opisthomelas, whose size at once removes it from this group, and is 
here noted because Hartlaub {Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1867, p. 832) named a 
variety thus : — 
Puffinus opisthomelas Coues. 
Four specimens from the Pelew Islands. 
Var. minor ; subcaudalibus totis nigro-fuliginosis. 
The type of Coues’s description from Cape St. Lucas is a somewhat larger bird ; but, there 
being no other differences between it and our Pelew bird, I prefer considering this latter a 
smaller race. 
The dimensions of our specimens are: Long, tota rectr. 12-12*'", alae 3" 4-7,'" 
tars. 17". 
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