Order PEOCELLARIIFOBMES 
No. 112. 
Family PROCELLARIIDM. 
HETEROPRION DESOLATES MATTINGLEYI. 
AUSTEALIAN DOYE-PRION. 
Hetbropeion desolatus MATTINGLEYI, subsp. n. ; Type no. 10,038 in my collection; 
East Australian seas. 
Prion banJcsii Gould, Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. II., p. 474, 1865. 
Prion banksi Hall, Key Birds Austr., p. 95, 1899 ; Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. Birds, 
p. 915, 1901 ; Hall, Key Birds Austr., p. 95, 1906 ; Mathews, Handl. Birds Austral, 
p. 18, 1908 ; Littler, Handb. Birds Tasm., p. 182, 1910. 
? Prion turtur North, Austr. Mus. Cat., No, 12, p, 406, 1889. 
? Prion desolatus Hall, Key Birds Austr., p. 95, 1899; ? Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. 
Birds, p. 916, 1901 ; ? Hall, Key Birds Austr,, p. 95, 1906 ; ? Mathews, Handl. Birds 
Austral, p. 18, 1908 ; ? Mattingley, Viet. Nat., Vol. XXV., p. 15, 1908 ; ? Littler, 
Handb. Birds Tasm., p. 183, 1910 ; ? Hull, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. XXXIV., 
p. 651, 1910. 
Distribution. Australian seas. 
Adult male. Blue-grey above, including the head, hind-neck, back, wings, and tail ; lesser 
wing-coverts and long scapulars blackish, as also the tips of the middle tail-feathers ; 
bastard-wing and primary-coverts black, the latter narrowly margined with white 
at the ends ; the four outer primaries black, inclining to white on the inner webs ; 
inner primaries and secondaries grey, with more or less white on the inner webs ; 
lores, cheeks, a line over the eye and under-surface pure white, including the 
axillaries and under wing-coverts. Total length 275 mm. ; culmen (exp.) 26, width 
of bill 12, wing 189, tail 95, tarsus 32. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Nestling. Covered with slaty-grey down (Mattingley). 
Nest. In a burrow, about two feet long {ib.). 
Egg. One {ib.). 
Breeding-season. Christmas (young) {ib.). 
The account herewith attached seems to refer to the breeding of this bird : — 
“ The Dovelike Prion is vernacularly known at Portland as the ‘ Snow- 
bird.’ There were very few of their ratlike burrows in this small area of soil, 
which was riddled in every direction with Penguin and Mutton bird holes, and 
as the Dovelike Prion is a fragile bird ... it has perforce to utilize that portion 
of the rookery unoccupied by these last named birds, which is the outer edge of 
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