THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
“ Total length, lOJ inches ; bill 15/16 ; wing 6f, tail 3J, tarsi IJ. Obtained 
on the Island of Madeira or one of the adjoining islets.” 
Gould compared it with his P. ariel^ which he stated he shot in great numbers 
in Bass Strait, from which it differed however in being smaller in all its 
admeasurements, in having a shorter, more swollen or robust bill, particularly 
with reference to the nostrils and the terminal hook of the upper mandible. 
P. ariel however had not been described, and when Schlegel wrote on the 
Procellari(B in the Mus. Pays-Bas. (p. 18), he characterised it thus : — 
“ Semblable a la Procellaria turtur egalement par rapport aux lamelles 
des mandibles ; mais de taille moins forte a bee plus faible. Aile 6 pouces 
2 ligres, point de I’aile 2 pouces 3 lignes. Queue ; pennes mitoyennes 2 pouces et 
8 ^ 10 lignes ; pennes externes 2 pouces et 5 a 7 lignes. Bee longueur 9 a 10 
lignes ; hauteur 2 lignes et demie ; largeur 3 lignes et demie a 4 lignes. Tube 
nasal 2 lignes. Tarse 12 a 13 lignes, Doigt du milieu 12 a 13 lignes. 
‘‘Mers de I’Australie ex Gould ”= Bass Strait. 
I do not think that Gould’s P. hrevirostris was ever procured on Madeira, 
but the safest course seems the acceptance of the South Atlantic as the type- 
locality of that form. Smith obtained a specimen in the Cape seas and figured 
it as P. turtur, so that it does occur in the South Atlantic ; otherwise I have 
noted no recent records for that locality, nor have I seen other specimens. 
The range of the species is circumpolar in the sub-antarctic zone, in which 
respects it agrees with the majority of the Prions. 
The forms I would at present recognise are as follows : — 
P. turtur turtur Kuhl ; Australian seas. 
Its synonymy would include Halohcena typica Bonaparte, and Prion ariel 
Schlegel. 
P. turtur hrevirostris Gould ; South Atlantic ; breeding-isle unknown. 
P. turtur eatoni, subsp. n. ; Kerguelen Island. 
Differs from P. t. turtur in its longer, heavier bill : the type of Smith’s 
P. turtur agrees more nearly with this than with the type of Gould’s 
P. hrevirostris. 
P. turtur solanderi, subsp. n. ; west coast South America. 
About the same size as P. t. turtur but with a longer bill, more nearly agreeing 
with the next form, than which it has a shorter wing. 
P. turtur huttoni, subsp. n. ; Chatham Islands. 
A fine series of this form has enabled me to trace the growth and structure 
of the bill from juvenile to adult and also to advocate the theory that each 
island wiU be found to be resorted to by a different subspecies for the purpose 
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