_Procellaria hasitata_ (sic) Kuhl, Beitr. z. Zool. Temminck, Pl. Col.
416 (1826); Gould, B Australia VII, pl. 47 (1845).
_Procellaria diabolica_ Lafresnaye, Rev. Zool. 1844, p. 168.
_Procellaria meridionalis_ Lawrence, Ann. Lyceum N.Y. IV, p. 475
(1848-- ), V, pl. 15, p. 220 (1852).
_Procellaria rubritarsi_ Newton, Zoologist 1852, p. 3692 (ex Gould's
MS., descr. nulla).
_Aestrelata haesitata_ Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. XLII, p. 768 (1856),
Elliot, B. N. America II. pl. 60, fig. 1 (1868); Rothsch. & Hart, New
Edition of "Naumann" XII, p. 20 (1903).
_Aestrelata diabolica_ Bonap., Consp. Av. II, p. 189 (1855).
_Oestrelata haesitata_ Newton, Ibis 1870, p. 277; Dresser, B. Europe
VIII, p. 545, pl. 618 (1880); Stevens, B. of Norfolk, III, p. 361, pl.
4 (1890); Salvin, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXV, p. 403 (1896).
Mr. Saunders describes this bird as follows: "The adult has the crown and
nape dark brown, hind-neck white, cheeks and ear-coverts greyish; mantle
dark brown; upper tail-coverts white; central tail-feathers chiefly
brownish-black, the rest more or less white on their basal portions but
broadly edged with brown; forehead and under-parts white; bill black; legs
and feet dusky-yellow. Length 16 inches, wing 11.3 inches. The immature
bird is believed to be mottled with brown on the forehead and to be duller
in tint on the upper parts."
Though evidently not quite extinct, it seems certain that the fate of this
bird is sealed. In former times it used to breed in great numbers on
several of the West Indian Islands: Hayti, Guadeloupe, and Dominica. Its
last breeding place was the Morne au Diable or Morne Diablotin on Dominica.
There it was searched for in vain by Colonel Feilden, in 1889, who wrote a
lengthy article about it in the "Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Society"
V. p. 24-39. Mr. Selwyn Branch again, ten years later, ascended La Morne au
Diable, and found the old breeding places deserted. The "Manicou,"
evidently an introduced North-American Opossum, Mongoose and rats had
entirely extirpated the "Diable."
Two-and-a-half centuries ago Père du Tertre found this Petrel breeding on
Guadeloupe, and Père Labat, about forty years later, found it in great
numbers, and gave a long, graphic description of it in his "Nouveau Voyage
aux isles de l'Amérique" (Edit. I, Vol. II, pp. 349-353). These birds were
then known as the "Diable" or "Diablotin," and their flesh was highly
esteemed, and they were even salted and exported to Martinique and other
French islands in great numbers. {160}
In 1876 Mr. F. A. Ober searched already unsuccessfully for our birds.
It seems that the disturbance and destruction on their breeding places has
scattered these Petrels about, for specimens have at various times been
taken on the coast of Florida and Virginia, and even as late as 1893 and
1895, inland of the State of New York on Oneida Lake, in Ulster County,
Vermont and Ontario; moreover, a specimen has been killed in 1850 in
Norfolk, England, and an example in the Museum of Boulogne is said to have
been killed in the neighbourhood of that town.
In an undated and unpaginated pamphlet, received last year in Europe, Mr.
A. Hyatt Verrill informs us that this bird is "not uncommon on the fishing
grounds and in Martinique and Guadeloupe channels," and that he took a
specimen in September, 1904. This statement requires confirmation.
In collections this bird is very rare. I have the male (in moult) which was
caught on August 28th, 1893 on Oneida Lake, in the State of New York.
Habitat: West Indian Islands.
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