On Aestrelata aterrima (Bonaparte)

Last year Mr. P. Buitendijk had the good fortune to obtain again an example of Aestrelata aterrima (Bonaparte), caught aboard ship at night in the Indian Ocean (lat. 10°52'N., long 60°8' E.) at December 11th 1911. This is the second example presented by him to our collection (cf. Notes Leyden Mus. XXXIII, 1910—’11, p. 113). It is a female in worn plumage, moulting wing- and tailfeathers, and having no whitish feathers on the lores and on the head like the first specimen. Mr. Buitendijk has noted the colour of the light parts of the feet in the live bird dull white; that of iris and bill black. I received the bird in rather fresh condition, as it had been preserved in the refrigerating-room of the steamer; the colour of the light parts of the feet was then whitish, with a faint rosy tinge near the heel-joint. Now the feet are dried and have changed colour; they are at present of a dark brownish flesh-colour, and somewhat resemble the feet of the bird, figured in Du Cane Godman’s Monograph, in which plate the feet seem to have been coloured after the faded feet of the specimen in the Cambridge Museum. As this is already the second specimen accidentally caught, this species likely is in our wintermonths of regular occurrence in the northwestern part of the Indian Ocean.