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The black-toed petrel of Latham, on which Gmelin founded his Procellaria melanopus, has not previously been satisfactorily identified. For many years earlier this century, melanopus Gmelin was widely used as the name for the providence petrel Pterodroma solandri. On the basis of available evidence it is reasonable to conclude that Latham’s black-toed petrel was in fact a specimen of the mottled petrel Pterodroma inexpectata, taken in the course of Cook’s third voyage at sea off the north-west coast of North America, probably in the Gulf of Alaska in May 1778.