h i ;
B U L W E B A S P E T R E L.
Procellaria Buhverii, JAKDINE. SELBY.
Thalassidroma Buhverii, GOULD.
Procellaria. Procella—A storm. Buhverii—Of Bolwer, Hulwcr's.
THIS, species appears to have been discovered as a new one by Mr.
Bulwer, when a resident in Madeira. It inhabits that and the adjacent
small islands.
As a British Bird, it takes its place on the authority of the occurrence
of a specimen on the banks of the River I re, or Yore, near
Tanfield, and which was placed on record by Colonel Dal ton, of
Sleningford Hall, near Ripon. Meyer speaks of having been informed
of another obtained near York, and a third taken on a ship off
Scarborough.
In flight it may readily, from the nature of its habits, be supposed
to 'excel.
Its note is, no doubt, of the same 'leggiardo' character as that of
the other species.
Male; length, from ten and a half to eleven inches; bill, black; iris,
dark brown, nearly black. Head, crown, neck, nape, chin, and throat,
sooty black; breast, sooty black, with a slight tinge of greyish brown;
back, nearly uniform sooty black. Greater wing coverts, sooty black,
the edges rather paler; lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries,
tertiaries, and greater and lesser under wing coverts, sooty black. The
tail is also sooty black, and consists of twelve feathers arranged in
a wedge-shaped form, the centre plumes being two inches longer than
the outside ones; tail coverts, sooty black. Legs, toes, and claws, dark
reddish brown; webs, dark brown.