SOFT-PLUMAGED PETEEL. 
be utilised. In the Monograph many pages are taken up by the records of birds 
seen by voyagers, admittedly scientific men, but nevertheless their reports are 
absolutely valueless in the present state of this science. 
When Gould introduced Procellaria mollis {Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. 
XIII., p. 363, 1844) he stated that he had shown it to Natterer who concluded : 
“ The Procellaria lugens of Banks’s drawings. No. 22 ? ; Procellaria grisea Kuhl 
(not of Gould), pi. 11., fig. 9 ; does not agree with Banks’s drawings, but 
agrees with Kuhl’s grisea. A new name is certainly requisite, if no other 
can be found.” 
Gould’s description is appended : — 
Procellaria mollis n. sp. Adult. Crown of the head and all the upper surface slate-gray, 
the feathers of the forehead margined with white ; wings dark brown ; before and beneath the 
eye a mark of brownish black ; face, throat and all the under surface pure white, interrupted 
by the slate-gray of the upper surface advancing upon the sides of the chest, and forming a faint 
band across the breast ; centre tail-feathers dark gray ; outer feathers grayish white, freckled 
with dark gray ; biU black ; tarsi, base of the toes, and basal half of the inner interdigital 
membrane pale fleshy white. Total length 13^ inches ; bill 1^ ; wing, 9f ; tail, cuneiform, 
5 ; tarsi, If ; middle toe and nail. If. The young differs in having all the under surface dark 
gray, and the throat freckled with gray. 
South Atlantic. 
In the Coinptes Rendus Sci., Paris, Vol. XLII., p. 768, 1856, Bonaparte 
included Rhantistes mollis Gould, and as synonyms gave solandri ? Gould and 
melanopus ? Gmelin. I have fully discussed these last two in the previous 
pages. The same year in the same periodical (Vol. XLIII., p. 995) Bonaparte 
readjusted his ideas, and placing mollis in his new genus Cookilaria, only added 
as synonym P. hcesitata ? Forst., Icon 97 ; and also recognised G. melanopus 
Soland. nec Gmelin, with synonym P. solandri Gould. In the Gonsp. Gen. Av., 
Vol. II., p. 190, 1857, Bonaparte, admitting P. solandri Gould, also recognised 
Goohilaria mollis Gould, to which he added the extraordinary fist of synonyms : 
“ cinerea ? Gmelin, tristis ? Kuhl, crepidata ? vel sandaliata ? Solander, melanura 
Bonn., unicolor ? Gould, juv.” I have noted these as showing the attempted 
determinations of the Solander names and Banksian drawings. In 1844 Gray 
had introduced P. crepidata Sol. MS., as being probably equivalent to P. mollis 
Gould. Parkinson’s drawings Nos. 21 and 22 have been recognised by Salvin, 
Sharpe, and Godman as referable to P. hrevirostris Lesson, but as they were 
made from the specimens described by Solander as P. lugens, this must be 
reconsidered. I attach Solander’s description of his P. lugens : — 
lugens Procellaria fusco -cinerea, gula crisso alisque subtus albis, pedibus glaucis ; palma 
nigra basi pallida. 
Fig. Piet. 
Habitat in oceano-Antarctico a Terra del Fuego australi. Lat. austr. gr. LIX Long, 
occid. (Febr. 1, 1769) in Oceano Australi Lat. austr. XXXVI : 49 Long. occ. 
CXI 30 (Martii 3, 1769) 
159 
