SHORT-BILLED PETREL. 
In the Auk., Vol. XXXVII., p. 90, Jan., 1920, Loomis says that this is 
undoubtedly the same bird as the one named parvirostris Peale, 1848. 
In the Ibis for July, 1931, p. 586, I consider that the parvirostris of authors 
is not that of Peale, and use the name wortheni of Rothschild, 1902, of which 
oliveri of Mathews and Iredale, 1912, is considered a synonym. 
It has been stated that the bird believed to be the type of parvirostris for 
over eighty pars must still be so called although it differs from the original 
description and painting of the type in many essentials. With this I do not 
agree ; I think that the type should agree in some important particular with 
the original description. 
However, in this case, alba is older by sixty years than parvirostris, and must 
be used. 
Adult female. Upper surface dark sooty-black, including the head, sides of the neck, hack, rump, 
upper tail-coverts, tail and the wings ; inter-ramal space brown, with the bases of the feathers 
white; throat white, for about 25 mm. ; a band across the breast brownish black, 
darker in the sides ; sides of the body brownish-black ; remainder of the under-surface white, 
including the vent and under tail-coverts ; the long outer tail-coverts spotted or barred with 
brown ; under wing-coverts and axillaries like the sides of the body ; the under wing-coverts 
from the axillaries half-way to the bend of the wing, white ; under aspect of the primaries 
shiny greyish-brown, with the outer edge of the inner webs bordered with greyish-white ; 
quills white at the base ; all the dark feathers have white bases ; a few philo-plumes under 
and behind the eye ; a white line immediately under the eye ; and a faint one above it, in 
some specimens. Irish brown, bill black, feet black, with the upper half of the web flesh ; 
tarsus darker flesh. Total length 395 mm. : wing 279, exp. culmen 26 ; tail 120, tarsus 33 ; 
middle toe and claw 44. 
Collected on Hatutu Island in the Marquesas, on October 12, 1922, by Rollo H. Beck. 
The sexes are alike. 
I have compared the above with the type of wortheni Rothschild, which is a 
female ; total length 312 mm. : wing 280 ; exp. culmen 27 ; tail 113 ; tarsus 34 ; 
middle toe and claw 44 ; also with the type of oliveri M. & I., which is a male and 
is lighter on the breast band ; total length 385 mm. : wing 277 ; exp. culmen 28 ; 
tail 115 ; tarsus 34 ; middle toe and claw 44, and consider them to be identical. 
The measurements are as follows :— 
Wing. 
Culmen. 
Tail. 
Tarsus. 
alba (female) 
279 
26 
120 
33 
Two from Christmas Island 
282 
28 
111 
32.1 
285 
28 
112 
32.5 
wortheni (female) 
280 
27 
113 
34 
oliveri (male) 
277 
28 
115 
34 
That is a difference in the length of the wing from 277 to 285 mm. (8 mm.); 
culmen 26 to 28 (2); tail 111 to 120 (9) ; tarsus 32 to 34 (2). 
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