THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Apparently this bird was first distinguished by Forster on Captain Cook’s 
second voyage, who met with it associated with P. vittatus. I give the extract 
relating to its discovery, under that bird. 
He named it Procellaria similis on account of its likeness to P. vittata, 
but his descriptions were not published until 1844. In the Tagebuch Entdek. 
reise Sudsee (p. 35, 1781) he recorded that name, but it was unaccompanied 
by a description, so it must be ignored, as a nude name only. 
This bird was first described by Latham {Gen. Synops. Birds, Vol. III., 
p. 415, 1785) as the Blue Petrel, thus : — 
Br. Mus. 
Length 12 inches. Bill an inch and a quarter, blue with a black tip ; middle of the bend 
yellow ; the upper parts of the plumage blue-grey, but paler than the last ; under parts white ; 
beneath the eye a patch of dusky ; on the breast a dusky band ; the greater quills are 
somewhat darter than the rest, and the inner webs of some of them nearly white ; the tail the 
colour of the back, but the outer feather is white, the next white within, the rest tipped with 
white ; across the body and wings when expanded a dark band, as in the broad-billed species ; 
the wings when closed are somewhat longer than the tail ; the legs are blue ; the webs pale. 
Inhabit the Southern Ocean, from 47 to 68 degrees of latitude. 
and upon this description was founded Gmelin’s Procellaria ccerulea {Syst. Nat., 
560, 1789) 
Procellaria caerulea. / 
Pr. ex caerulo cinerea subtus alba, rostro pedibusque caeruleis. 
Blue Petrel. Porst. it. I. p. 91 Lath. syn. Ill 2., p. 415, n. 21. 
Other Blue Petrel. Cook it. I. p. 32. 
Habitat gregatim in oceano australi, 12 poUices long. 
Rostrum apice nigrum ; infra oculos area, ad pectus taenia obscura ; remiges majores 
reliquis obscuriores ; rectrices extimae totae, proximae intus albae, reliquae apice ; fascia 
obscura per corpus et alas transversa. 
The only synonyms are Forster’s P. similis and Smith’s P. forsteri. 
Although many observers have noted that it is a common bird in nature, 
it is one of the rarest species of the Procellariiformes in Museums ; consequently 
no subspecies can be differentiated, though very probably such exist. 
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