Tahiti Petrel
Procellaria rostrata Peale, U. S. Expl. Exp., 8, 1848, p. 296. (Type locality, Mountains about 6,000 feet on Tahiti, Society Islands.)
Procellaria desolata Pucheran, Voy. Pôle Sud, 3, 1853, p. 138 (des îles Carolines); Hartlaub, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 168 (Carolinen).
Procellaria (Aestrelata) desolata Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Is. Pacific Ocean, 1859, p. 55 (Caroline Islands).
Oestrelata rostrata Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 82 (Caroline Is.); Godman, Monogr. Petrels, pt. 3, 1908, p. 190 (Caroline Is.).
Pterodroma rostrata Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 33 (Carolines).
Pterodroma rostrata subsp. (?) Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 188 (Carolines); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 210 (Carolines).
Geographic range.—Known to breed on the Society and Marquesas Islands. In Micronesia: Caroline Islands—exact locality unknown.
Characters.—A large petrel with blackish-brown plumage except for belly and under tail-coverts white and throat, upper breast and flanks pale brown; bill black; legs yellowish; feet black. This oceanic bird differs from other petrels and shearwaters of Micronesia by the presence of a white abdomen in contrast with dark plumage on upper parts, throat, and breast.
Remarks.—A petrel which is referred to this subspecies has been taken once in Micronesia, by Hombron and Jacquinot in the Caroline Islands. It may be pointed out that the subspecies P. r. becki Murphy is known from the sea east of the Bismarck Archipelago and might range into Micronesian waters.