PROCELLARIA GLACIALOIDES, Smith.
Silvery-grey Petrel.
ProceUaria Glaciabides, Smith, Zool. of South Africa, Ares, pi. 5 1—Forst. Drawings, No. D l—List o f Birds in
Brit. Mus. Coll., p a rt iii. p. 162.
D u r in g m y voyages to and from Australia,I saw numerous examples of this bird, both in the Atlantic and
Pacific. I first met with it off the Cape o f Good Hope, and it was frequently seen from thence across
the South Indian Ocean to New South Wales; I subsequently observed it between Sydney and Cape
Horn ; it was numerous off the Falkland islands, and I possess specimens killed on the shores o f New
Zealand. One of the finest specimens I possess was captured by me with a hook and line, and thus
afforded Mrs. Gould an opportunity of making the accompanying beautiful drawing from life. It was a
species which particularly interested me while at sea, as much for its familiar habits as for its peculiar
actions and mode o f flight: with the exception of the Cape Petrel (Daption Capensis), no. species was more
readily taken with a baited hook. In its structure it is also most closely allied to that species; like that
bird it has very broad primaries, giving an appearance o f great breadth to the end o f the wing, has the same
number of feathers (1 4 ) in the tail, and the nostrils placed in a single tube.
Dr. Smith, who was the first to discriminate the characters which distinguish this species, remarks that,
“ In many respects it has a strong resemblance to the ProceUaria glacialis of authors ; the length of the
bill, however, is not only greater, but the thickness is also different, being inferior to that of P . glacialis,
and neither are ever otherwise in any individual of the Cape species . . . . It often hunts for its food in the
neighbourhood o f the South African coasts, and even frequently enters the bays, apparently for the same
purpose. It flies higher above the surface of the water than the smaller species, rests more frequently, and
seems well-disposed to feed upon dead animal matter, when such can be procured.”
All the upper surface and tail delicate silvery g rey ; outer webs, shafts, a line along the inner webs, and
the tips of the primaries and the outer webs o f the secondaries slaty black ; face and all the under surface
pure silky white; irides brownish black; nostrils, culrnen, and a portion o f the base o f the upper mandible
bluish lead-colour; tips of both mandibles fleshy horn-colour, deepening into black at their points;
remainder of the bill pinky flesh-colour; legs and feet grey, washed with pink on the tarsi and blotched with
slaty black on the joints.
The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size.