Page:The birds of America, volume 7.djvu/284

208 Plumage free, close, elastic, blended; on the back and wings the feathers rather distinct. Wings long; primary quills rather broad, tapering, acumi- nate, the first longest, the rest graduated; secondary broad and rounded. Tail rather short, slightly rounded, of twelve broad, rounded feathers. Bill, iris, and feet yellow, the latter tinged with green. The head, neck and lower parts, are pure white; the back and wings light greyish-blue, the rump paler, the tail bluish-white; the primary quills and their coverts black- ish-brown.

Length to end of tail 16^ inches, to end of wings 17§, to end of claws Hi; extent of wings 30; wing from flexure 13; tail 4i; bill along the back 1 jf, along the edge of lower mandible 2^; tarsus 2; outer toe 1 T 8 2, its claw f|. Weight 1 lb. 4 oz.

The Female is similar to the male.

Three skins transmitted to me by Mr. Townsend appear to belong to two species of the Fulmar genus, distinct from that of the Atlantic seas. The first of these species I have named as above. An adult individual resembles the common Procellaria glacialis in form, proportions, and colour, but differs in having the bill much smaller, more compressed, with the angle of the lower mandible narrower, and the tips of both very much inferior in strength. It is about the same size as the species just mentioned, and shews no remarkable difference in the wings or tail. Besides being more com- pressed, its bill presents a character, which, if universal, is perfectly dis- tinctive; the upper outline of the united nasal tubes is concave in the Atlantic Fulmar, and its ridge flattened; whereas the outline of these tubes is straight in the Pacific species, and its ridge distinctly carinate. Pacific Fulmar, Procellaria pacifica, Aud. Orn. Eiog.. vol. v. p. 331.