Puffinus pacificus chlororhynchus Lesson
Wedge-tailed Shearwater
Puffinus chlororhynchus Lesson, Traité d'Ornith., 8, 1931, p. 613. (Type is from Shark's Bay, West Australia.)
Puffinus sphenurus Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 299 (Mortlock).
Puffinus chlororhynchus Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 80 (Luganor?); Godman, Monogr. Petrels, pt. 2, 1908, p. 88 (Carolines); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 33 (Luganor or Ruk?).
Puffinus pacificus chlororhynchus Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 187 (Lukunor or Truk?, Kusaie); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 209 (Lukunor or Truk?, Kusaie).
Geographic range.—Breeds at the Seychelles, Australia, Lord Howe, Norfolk, and other islands in the Australian area. Ranges throughout most of the warmer parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands—Guam; Caroline Islands—Lukunor or Truk?, Kusaie.
Characters.—A large shearwater with long wedge-shaped tail; upper parts sooty-brown with crown, neck, and wings darker and forehead paler; under parts paler than upper parts; bill dark; feet flesh-colored.
Remarks.—This shearwater was taken by Kubary either at Lukunor or at Truk in the Caroline Islands. At a later date, apparently between 1922 and 1932, the Japanese recorded the bird at Kusaie. In using this subspecific name, I am following the Hand-list of Japanese Birds (Hachisuka et al., 1932:187).
At Guam on August 10, 1931, Coultas obtained a male shearwater, which is tentatively placed in this subspecies. Its measurements are as follows: wing, 290; tail, 128; exposed culmen, 39; tarsus, 47. Coultas (field notes) writes that he was told by natives that petrels nest and roost on the high cliffs behind the city of Agaña on Guam. At sea south of the eastern Caroline islands, Coultas obtained five other birds which appear to be the same as the bird from Guam. All specimens are in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History.