Jim LeNomenclatoriste
Je suis un mignon petit Traquet rubicole
Hi all. I
I need your help to solve this mystery
When the Petrel was described for the first time by Dampier in his "A Voyage to New Holland" (1703), he given this description :
"The Petrel is a bird not much unlike a swallow, but smaller, and with a shorter tail, 'Til all over black, except a white spot on the rump. They fly sweeping like swallows, and very near the water. They are not so often seen in fair weather; being foul-weather birds, as our seamen call them, and presaging a storm when they come about a ship; who for that reason don't love to see them. I a storm they will hover close under the ship's stern, in the wake of the ship (as'tis call'd) or the smoothness which the ship's passing has made on the sea: and there as they fly (gently then) they pat the water alternately with their feet, as if they walkt upon it; tho' still upon the wing. And from hence the seamen give them the name of Petrels, in allusion [...]"
The description doesn't match with the genus Pterodroma, so it's pretty sure that the species described belongs either to the Oceanitidae or to the Hydrobatidae, but do we know what is the exact species he described ?
I need your help to solve this mystery
When the Petrel was described for the first time by Dampier in his "A Voyage to New Holland" (1703), he given this description :
"The Petrel is a bird not much unlike a swallow, but smaller, and with a shorter tail, 'Til all over black, except a white spot on the rump. They fly sweeping like swallows, and very near the water. They are not so often seen in fair weather; being foul-weather birds, as our seamen call them, and presaging a storm when they come about a ship; who for that reason don't love to see them. I a storm they will hover close under the ship's stern, in the wake of the ship (as'tis call'd) or the smoothness which the ship's passing has made on the sea: and there as they fly (gently then) they pat the water alternately with their feet, as if they walkt upon it; tho' still upon the wing. And from hence the seamen give them the name of Petrels, in allusion [...]"
The description doesn't match with the genus Pterodroma, so it's pretty sure that the species described belongs either to the Oceanitidae or to the Hydrobatidae, but do we know what is the exact species he described ?
Last edited: