THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Those seen between Tasmania and New Zealand were probably another 
variety, if not a distinct species ; they appeared smaller than the normal 
form, and had a white band all round the bill from the chin to the forehead, 
but none round the eyes. The bill seemed to be quite black. In appearance 
and manner of flight they seemed to me to connect P. mquinoctialis with 
P. inacTopteraP 
What is the solution of the puzzle ? 
The common bird in the Cape seas has rather a large chin-spot, the white 
extending on to the lower cheeks. This may be the Kerguelen breeding bird. 
I propose to treat it as such, but it is quite possible that two forms meet in 
the Cape seas, as Kerguelen breeding birds have the chin white, but the white 
does not extend as much as in some of the Cape seas birds. 
The Antipodes and Auckland Islands breeding bird has a very minute 
chin-spot, in some cases almost absent. 
The South American birds agree most closely with the Auckland Islands 
birds, but are larger. 
The form under consideration (P. a. conspicillata), which has been a bone 
of contention for so many years, is a very distinct one. It is quaint that all 
the birds, though supposedly variable, should have exactly the same markings. 
Gould and Reichenow have figured it exactly the same as every bird I have yet 
seen. It may be that there are two breeding forms of this, because I do not 
consider it reasonable to suppose that the form commonly met with in Australian 
seas, would be the same as the Falkland Islands form which Giglioli and Gould 
write of. At least, in face of the material I have handled, that would seem 
impossible. Instead of variation, from the measurements taken it appears 
these birds are most wonderfully constant in size of wing, in character of 
throat-spot, in coloration ; and it seems that the coloration of the bill will 
definitely fix each race. At least each observer of a different race has 
noted a different coloration of the bill. I tabulate hereafter the races 
I purpose to recognise. 
P. a. cequinoctialis Linne. Probably breeding at the Falkland Islands or South 
Georgia. 
The type-figure has no white chin-spot, but typical birds have 
a small white chin-spot confined to the interramal space. The 
bill coloration is pale yellow, and probably the following is an 
exact description taken from a Gough Island specimen : “ Yellowish 
bill, with the basal part of the culminicorn, the margins contiguous 
to the latericorn, and its tip black, the distal plate and the narrow 
median plate of the mandible black.” 
no 
