EASTERN GREY-EACED PETREL. 
He then followed with — 
Procellaria macroptera Smith? (Grey-faced Black Petrel). I think that 
a bird I killed in the seas off Van Diemen’s Land, where it was tolerably 
abundant, and which differs from the last in being of a larger size, having 
much longer wings and a grayer face, may be identical with the P. 7nacroptem 
of Smith, and I therefore retain it under that appellation with a mark of 
doubt, in preference to assigning it a new name.” 
It was really obvious that the Atlantic bird should have been referred to 
Smith’s name. It may be that Gould was misled by the different measure- 
ments, but here again Gould’s figures are not faultless, as he makes the tarsus 
loTiger than the middle toe and nail. Every specimen I have examined has 
the tarsus shorter than the middle toe alone. 
However, Gould’s error was at once corrected by Hutton, who, in the Ihis, 
1869, p. 351, described MstrelaUi gouldi as follows : — 
Bill compressed, much higher than broad, black. Legs and feet black. Upper parts of body 
with wings and tail sooty -black, some of the wing-coverts with brownish tips ; under parts 
dark brown. Forehead, cheeks, and chin silvery -grey, shading off gradually into the black ; the 
grey does not reach to the eye. Tail moderately long, cuneate ; wings, when folded, reaching 
about half-an-inch beyond the tip. 
Length, 16,75 inches ; wing, from carpal joint 13,5 ; tail 5, graduation 1.4 ; bill, from 
gape 1.6, chord of culmen 1,2 ; height at base .7, width .6 ; tarsus 1.6 ; middle toe and claw 
2.6, outer do. 2.5, inner toe 2.15. 
New Zealand seas. 
This bird was also described in the Trans. New. Zeal. Inst. 1869, Vol. II., 
p. 79, 1870, where Hutton wrote : “ (This) is undoubtedly the bird that Mr. Gould 
refers to as ‘ the dark Petrel with a grey face,’ which he shot off the coast of 
Tasmania, and which he suggests might be the Procellaria 7nacroptera of Dr. 
A. Smith.” It should be noted that Ramsay included both P. 7nacroptera and 
atlantica in the Australian List in 1877, and more recently still Buffer in the 
Supplement included (1905) both (JEstrelata fuliginosa and (E. gouldi in the 
New Zealand avifauna. 
In the Monograph of the Petrels, despite both Gould and Hutton’s separa- 
tion on account of the grey face, both forms are lumped, and it is written : 
“ The grey face which Gould insisted upon is of no value as a character. 
I imagine that the grey tint on the face and throat in this bird is a sign of 
adult plumage, and it is quite certain that it fades and bleaches.” \\ 
Unfortunately the big majority of the specimens upon which this conclusion 
is based are quite valueless, as they are unlocalised. The few accurately labelled 
specimens available show that Hutton’s character of a grey face holds for the 
Australian birds, and that Gould’s character of longer wings is also right. 
Hutton also gives wing-measurement 13.5 inches (= 342 mm.), a figure I have 
VOL. n. 
137 
