136 
ALLEN S naturalist’s LIBRARY. 
margin of the sternum is even ; pterygoid processes are absent ) 
the manubrium of the forcula is long ; the coracoids are long, 
comparatively narrow across the base, and slightly divergent ; 
The second primary is the longest. (Cf. Salvin, p. 342-) 
THE TRUE STORM-PETRELS. SUB-FAMILY 
rROCELLARIINH-:. 
The plumage of the Petrels is soraewliat close- set and a 
peculiar musky odour is perceptible in all of the species, both 
large and small. The same smell attaches to the eggs, and 
seems never to evaporate entirely. 
An interesting note on these birds has recently been pub- 
lished by Mr. R. Drane, of Cardiff I am disposed to the 
belief that the birds of this family do not enter the water as 
they are assumed, and very naturally assumed, to do ; for I 
have now had three species in confinement, Leach’s Storm 
Petrel, the Greater Shearwater, and the Manx Shearwater, 
and, in each case, I find that when these birds re.ally enter the 
water, they make strenuous efforts to get out ot it, and that, 
succeeding, they are so drenched as to be incapable of flight. 
This statement has been met by the suggestion that the 
unnatural conditions of confinement effect a change in the 
Quality of the plumage, which might account for this satura- 
tion. Remembering this, I immersed a Shearwater m the sea 
within an hour or so of its capture, and the result was the 
same. Be the explanation what it may, this fact remains, as 
the result of repeated observation, that I cannot drench a Duck 
or a Gull by immersion, and that I cannot immerse a Petrel 
without drenching it. I have failed to tame any of these birds 
or to induce them to take food spontaneously.” 
The members of this sub-family have the following charac- 
ters, which are set forth by Mr. Salvin in the work above 
referred to : — “ Leg-bones shorter than the wing-bones ; tarsus 
never twice as long as the femur ; basal phalanx of the middle 
toe shorter than the next two joints ; the keel of the sternum 
entirely ossified ; tarsus covered in front with hexagonal scutes ; 
claws sharp and compressed ; outer toe shorter than the middle 
toe ; secondaries at least thirteen in number.” _ 
Three genera are reprerented in the sub-family, of which 
