SPECTACLED PETREL. 
When the author of the Monograph wrote, he included all the forms of 
P. oequinoctialis under that name, and concluded that the white markings on 
the head and throat were liable to variation. I am convinced however that 
the opposite is the truth, and that these birds are liable to scarcely any variation, 
and herewith give details of my researches. 
Procellaria cequinoctialis was introduced by Linne in the 10th ed. Syst. Nat., 
p. 132, 1758, for the bird beautifully described and figured by Edwards, 
Vol. II., PI. 89. Linne’s description reads: “ P. [rocellaria] fusca immaculata, 
rostro flavo. Habitat ad Cap. b. Spei.” This description is correct, as Edwards 
figures a totally brown-black bird with no white markings on the chin or head ; 
he, moreover, gives a detail figure of the bill, where again no white is shown. As 
locality, Edwards wrote : “I am of opinion it is from the seas about the 
Cape of Good Hope. I could not gather any more certain account of its 
place.” 
As the figure is undoubtedly of this species, and no form has yet been 
discovered without any white on the chin, it is difficult how to treat the name. 
It has been suggested that the artist has overlooked the white chin, but that 
would only be possible if there were very little white under the chin. This is 
the case in two forms, the New Zealand one and the Falkland or South Georgia 
form. As Edwards’s bird did not come from New Zealand, but from the South 
Atlantic, the only course open is to restrict the name to the Falkland Islands 
or South Georgian breeding subspecies. It should be noted that both Dr. 
Kidder and Mr. R. Hall assert that they saw birds without any white on the chin 
at Kerguelen, but neither procured such a specimen. As the Kerguelen bird 
has more white under the chin than the Falkland Islands bird, I suggest the 
above, rather than use the name cequinoctialis for the Kerguelen form. 
How many breeding ''forms of this species may be later differentiated it 
is impossible to forecast, as, so far, we have not found all their breeding -localities. 
We have not yet the least idea where P. a. conspicillata breeds. All I know 
is that aU the specimens I have handled have been from Australian seas, save one 
which was said to have come from the Cape. Yet Giglioli and Gould both state 
this form was very common near the Falkland Islands, which, of course at 
once indicates that a spectacled form breeds somewhere near the FaUdands, 
yet the specimens I have examined from the Falklands, South Georgia, and 
the extremity of South America, have all been birds with a very Wall 
chin-spot. 
Hutton moreover in the Ihis, 1867>p^ 187, wrote : “ The var. conspicillata 
of Gould was seen only between lat. 35° "^52' S. long. 18° 46' W., and lat. 
35° 40' S. long. 4° 28' W. I saw this bird in all stages of plumage, from 
that described by Linn^us to that figured by Mr. Gould as P. conspicillata. 
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