A 19th-century specimen of Black-bellied Storm Petrel Fregetta tropica, putatively from the seas off Port Essington, Cobourg Peninsula, Northern Territory, Australia

A 19th-century specimen of Black-bellied Storm Petrel Fregetta tropica in the collection of the Natural History Museum, Tring is putatively from Port Essington, an inlet on the Coburg Peninsula in Northern Territory, Australia, where there was a colonial-period settlement. There are no other records from the seas off northern Australia except east of the Torres Strait. Previous assessments of the avifauna of the Northern Territory have suggested that the identity or locality of the specimen should be questioned. We examined the specimen, verified that it is F. tropica, and determined that it was collected by the well-known natural historian John Gilbert, probably in 1840 or 1841, and probably in Northern Territory waters. This specimen therefore represents a notable vagrant and the first (and only) record of Black-bellied Storm Petrel for Northern Territory.