GREY PETREL. 
Th.6 bird, figured and described is a male, collected near New Zealand on 
the SOtli September, 1905. 
With regard to the forms of this species, I am unable to diagnose them, 
though such are surely existent. The series available are all sea-killed birds, 
none being known from any breeding-station, though, as above, it is supposed 
to breed on Kerguelen for one place. These sea-killed birds, procured at various 
times and places, show differences, but as they also show much wearing, nothing 
can be done at present. It is possible again that the bill will give good differential 
characters, but nothing much has been recorded regarding this feature. 
I herewith give some notes which will aid to the designation of forms at 
some future time. Coues, in 1864, separated two forms which he called Ado/tnastoT 
cinereus Gmelin and A. gelidus Gmehn. As recently as 1896 Ridgway accepted 
these forms in his second edition of the Manual of North American Birds, p. 58, 
separating the latter as having the “ lower parts white, including the under 
wing-coverts and tail-coverts.” I have seen no specimen from any locality with 
white under wing-coverts as yet. Ridgway also makes P. gelidus to be a much 
larger bird than his P. cinereus, the former having a wing of 15 inches against the 
latter’s 12.25-13.50 inches. I have failed to find any bird with a wing measuring 
anything like 380 mm., so cannot at all place Ridgway’s P. gelidus. 
As a matter of fact, the latter name could not be used for any form, as 
the following will show. 
Godman, in the Monograph of the Petrels^ discussed Gmelin’s P. cinerea 
and P. gelida, and rejected the idea of their identity, but accepted Forster’s 
P. hcBsitata as a synonym of P. cinerea. 
Gmelin’s P. cinerea was described as follows : — 
Gmelin, Syst. Nat., p. 563. 
Pr. cinerea subtus alba, cauda nigra, rostro flavicante, pedibus caerulescentibus. 
Cinereous Fulmar. Lath. Syn. III., 2, p. 405, n. 10. 
Habitat intra circulum Antarcticum, glacialis magnitudine, 20J poUices longa ; victus 
multifarius, praesertim sepia. 
Rostri suturae nigrae ; irides cinereae, rarius totius color pallide caeruleus ; vertex 
et irons reliquo capite paUidior ; pectus et abdomen interdum nigra ; cauda rotundata ; 
membrana digitos connectens flavescens ; digiti et ungues pallidi. 
Latham’s description being : — 
Cinereous Fulmar. Br. Mus. 
Size of the Fulmar : length twenty inches and a quarter. Bill yellowish, with black 
sutures ; irides ash-colour ; all the upper-parts of the plumage dusky ash-colour ; the crown 
of the head, and forehead, palest ; beneath, from chin to vent, white ; tail, rounded in shape, 
black ; the under-parts of the feathers pale ash-colour ; legs blueish ; webs pale yellow ; 
toes and claws pale. 
We have seen a variety of this with a pale blue bill, and the breast and belly of a deep 
dusky black. 
This species chiefly inhabits the parts within the Antarctic circle. Many seen in the lat. 
of 48 degrees. The food is various ; the bills of the Cuttle-fish have been found in its stomach. 
VOL. n. 
121 
