BROWN-HEADED PETREL. 
Gmelin gave a Latin translation {Syst. Nat., p. 562, 1789) with the name 
Procellaria melano'pus, thus : — 
Pr, nigra subtus cana, pedibus pallidis, capistro, mento gulaque pallide argenteis 
minutim maculatis. 
Black -toed Petrel. Lath, syn., III., 2, p. 408, n. 12. 
Habitat circa American! septentrionalem, 13 poUices longa. 
Vertex, cauda, rotundata, et alea totae obscure ni^ae ; dorsum ex atro paulispercanescens ; 
membrana digitos connectens parte sui ulteriore, digitorumque articuli nigri. 
Coues’s verdict as to this species was, “Not identifiable, except opiniona- 
tively. Evidently some species of ^strelata, said to come from North America, 
which would make it referrible [stc] to jPj. hcesitata. Description applies in most 
respects to mollis, Gould.” 
Gray, in his List Spec. Birds Brit. Mus., pt. ni., p. 164, 1844, had used 
Procellaria mdanopus Gmelin for specimens which were apparently birds like 
P. mollis Gould, as he includes in his synonymy P. crepidata Sol. MS., 
P. mollis Gould, and P. grisea Kuhl. Bonaparte, in the Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. II., 
p. 190, 1857, had however recognised P. mollis Gould, to which he doubtfully 
added as a synonym P. crepidata Sol. MS. ; P. grisea Kuhl he placed in the 
synonymy of P. inexpectata Forster while he included P. solandri Gould as valid, 
and as a synonym noted melanopus Natterer ex. Gm., an Soland ? 
Coues’s treatment of this latter species was the only possible one under 
the circumstances: its recognition as quite distinct from anything else. 
Gould’s description, in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIII., p. 363, 1844, 
is here given : — 
Procellaria Solandri, n. sp. Head, back of the neck, shoulders, primaries and tail dark 
brown ; back, wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts slate-grey, each feather margined with dark 
brown ; face and all the under surface brown, washed with grey on the abdomen ; bill, tarsi, 
toes and membranes black. 
Total length, 16 inches ; bill. If ; wing, 12 ; tail, 5| ; tarsi, | ; middle toe and nail, 2|. 
Bass’s Straits. One specimen killed on March 13, 1839. 
and the comment made : — 
Mr. Natterer thought that it might possibly be identical with the bird figured in Banks’s 
drawings, and to which Dr. Solander has affixed the term melano'pus, an opinion in which 
I cannot concur. 
Note again Gould’s measurements : Tarsus f in ! Coues, accepting this 
as being correctly given, notes that it must be an aberrant species. From the 
date of Gould’s description to the present time, the status of his P. solandri has 
been one of uncertainty. ^ 
In Phillips’s Voy. Bot. Bay, p. 161, 1789, is given the following description 
of the Norfolk Island Petrel : — 
Length sixteen inches ; biU one inch and a half long, black and very hooked at the tip ; 
the head as far as the eyes, the chin and throat, waved, brown and dusky white ; the rest of 
the body on the upper parts of a sooty brown, the under of a deep ash colour ; the inner part of 
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