(Estrelata mollis and Allies. 
299 
S. N. i. p. 562, no, 16 (ex Latham’s Black-toed Petrel); but 
this identification is far from being satisfactorily established. 
Mr. Gould, in 1848, included in his f Birds of Australia’ 
also P. mollis, writing as follows “ Although 1 have not 
seen it within sight of the shores of Australia, it doubtless 
occasionally visits them, for I observed it to be plentiful off 
the eastern end of the Islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam.” 
These islands being quite in the middle of the Indian Ocean, 
Gould’s surmise appears rather hazardous; still, from subse¬ 
quent evidence, it seems that he was right. 
In 1855, E. Vernon-Harcourt, in his paper, “ Notes on the 
Ornithology of Madeira,” included P. mollis , and all subse¬ 
quent writers down to Salvin (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vol. xxv.) 
and Dresser (Suppl. to the f Birds of Europe’), treating of 
P. mollis, have admitted the specific identity of the specimens 
from Madeira with those from the Southern Seas. 
Having had quite recently the opportunity of studying a 
collection of birds from the Cape Verde Islands, sent by 
the well-known traveller Signor Leonardo Fea, I found two 
specimens, exactly alike, of the genus (Estrelata , belonging 
to a species unknown to me, as, though resembling (E. mollis, 
they appeared to me to be specifically different. Signor Fea 
had written on the label of one of the specimens that they 
belong to an uncommon species, but resident in the islands, 
known to the natives as “ Gon-gon.” 
It occurred to me that the Cape Verde Islands bird 
might probably be of the same species as that of Madeira; 
and wishing to ascertain this point I wrote to Prof. 
A. Newton, asking him to send me for inspection two 
specimens collected in Madeira in 1853 by Dr. Frere, 
belonging to the Museum of Cambridge. On receiving these 
two birds their specific identity with those from the Cape 
Verde Islands was quite obvious. These four North-Atlantic 
specimens 1 was able to compare with four southern ones of 
(E. mollis, three collected during the voyage of the ‘ Magenta ’ 
(Gigl. et Salvad., Atti Soc. Ital. Sc. Nat. xi. (1868), p. 457; 
iid. Ibis, 1869, p. 66), and a fourth from the seas oft' the 
Cape of Good Hope, received from Verreaux by the late 
