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Show 1893.] PETRELS FROM THE KERMADEC ISLANDS. 751 which it differs much in the stoutness of the bill and in the colours of the feet, as well as in the plumage. From OI. leuco-ptera it differs in being lighter in colour and in the outer tail-feathers having the inner web white at the base and speckled with grey at the tip. " Not uncommon during the summer months, arriving about the beginning of November and leaving again at the end of Aprd. It breeds on Meyer Island and more sparingly on Sunday Island, generally in company with P. assimilis. It constructs a burrow sometimes over a yard in length, depositing a single pure white egg at the extremity." (Cheeseman.) OZSTRELATA CERYICALIS, Salvin, Ibis, 1891, p. 192. (Estrelata, sp., Cheeseman, Trans. N . Z. Inst. vol. xxiii. p. 224. Two specimens from Sunday Island, one adult, the other with down still remaining. Length 18 inches, wing 12-5, tail 6, bdl 1-5, tarsus 1-6, mid toe 1*7. Crown of the head, occiput, and below the eyes rusty black, the feathers of the posterior part of the forehead white with a black spot in the centre. Front, lores, chin, throat, malar and auricular regions, neck all round, breast, abdomen, and crissum pure white. Under wing-coverts white, with a dark patch inside the wrist-joint. Back sooty black; between the shoulders the feathers are largely tipped with grey, which gets less and less and disappears on the uropygium. The anterior part of the back is entirely grey, and this colour extends slightly on to the breast on each side, but not below the wings when folded. Some of the feathers of the flanks are tipped with grey or blackish. Upper tad-coverts brownish grey. Tail-feathers brownish grey, white at the base; the outer feathers with the inner webs white. Upper wing-coverts sooty black, the greater coverts very narrowly margined with grey. Primaries sooty black, the inner web of the first white at the base only. The wings when folded reach to about the end of the tail. Bill strong, black. Tarsi, the first and Greater part of the second joint of the inner toe, the first joint of the middle toe, and the web between them yellow. Distal portion of the feet black. Nestling.-The down still on the back of the head, back, flanks, and crissum. The colours of the plumage resemble those of the adult but are lighter. The feathers of the back are more broadly margined with light grey, as also are those of the uropygium. The upper wing-coverts, both greater and median, are margined with grey, and the feathers of the wings and tail are fighter than in the adult. On the other hand the yellow of the feet and tarsi is much darker. The measurements of the two are much the same. I have to thank Mr. O. Salvin for identifying this bird. I have not seen his description in ' The Ibis.' " It arrives about the end of September and remains until the end of June, being one of the last Petrels to leave the island. It is solitary in its habits, and very seldom can two nests be found in |
