“ P. major is very well known to the Scillonians, by whom
it is called Hackbolt. They inform me it is a constant
visitant in the latter part of autumn, and represent its
manners on the water as resembling those of P. angloi urn.
I recollect seeing four last year, through a telescope in
Mount’s Bay. It was late in the afternoon, the wind blowing
hard from S.S.W., which accounted for their being so far inshore
; they are generally deep-sea goers. They had exactly
the flight of P. anglorum, and kept so close to the water as
almost to skim the tops of the waves. Mr. Clement Jackson
told me last spring that they appear some autumns oft Looe
and Polperro in thousands.”
Genuine examples of the Great Shearwater have been
taken on the coasts of Devonshire and Dorset; but on our
eastern shores there appear to be but few well-authenticated
occurrences of this species. A bird shot on the 10th of
January, 1874, near Flamborougli, is in the collection of
Mr. J. H. Gurney, ju n .; and one captured near Spalding,
in Lincolnshire, was forwarded alive to the Gardens of the
Zoological Society of London (Zool. 1882, p. 464). Mr.
Cordeaux informs the Editor that in September 1881, this
species passed Flamborougli in considerable numbers. Mr.
B. Gray does not include the Great Shearwater in his «Birds
of the West of Scotland.’
In Ireland the Great Shearwater was obtained by Mr.
B. Warren, near Downpatrick Head, on the 22nd August,
1859 ; and Mr. Bobert Davis, jun., of Clonmel, sent the
Author notice and a coloured drawing of two birds taken
respectively in the autumns of 1838 and 1839. Mr. Davis
says, “ I kept the second specimen alive for about a week,
but, not having a suitable place for that purpose, killed it
and set it up. As well as I can recollect the former specimen,
this resembled it in every respect. It was, however,
more lively, and ran along very rapidly, with the breast about
an inch and a half from the ground. Having, on one occasion,
put it on a roof, it seemed to be more at ease on the
inclined plane afforded by that situation, than on a flat surface
; it mounted rapidly to the top, though when it came
to the edge no attempt to fly was made, and it fell heavily
to the ground. It rarely stirred at all during the day, but
kept itself as much concealed as possible, and if it could not
hide its body, would endeavour to conceal its head. The
fishermen sometimes keep them for weeks about their houses,
and in some instances they have become tame; they never
attempt to fly. It does not appear that the Manks Shearwater
is ever seen, nor could I ascertain that a Greater
Shearwater was ever shot, but always taken with a hook.
They are commonly known by the name of H a g c lo w n s It
is probable, from what is known of its geographical distribution,
that it is of not unfrequent occurrence off the southern
and western coasts. Examples obtained off the coast of
Kerry are in the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin; and
Major Feilden states that on the 19th of October, 1876,
when returning from the Arctic Expedition in H.M.S.
‘ Alert,’ in lat. 55° 44' N., long. 35° 38' W., a thousand
miles from Cape Clear, he came upon birds of this species,
which accompanied the ship across the Atlantic until within
a few miles of the Skelligs and the coast of Kerry. Sir B.
Payne-Gallwey thinks there is some chance that it may be
found breeding on the outlying Blasquets, where, on the
occasion of his visit in 1881, an old cliff-climber remarked,
unprompted, that sometimes when searching for the Manx
Shearwater, he had come upon a few birds of about double
the size (Fowler in Ireland, p. 289).
In the Faeroes and in Iceland the Great Shearwater is rare;
but it is marked by Prof. Beinhardt as breeding in Greenland,
where, according to Holboll, large numbers are found
from the southern point of the country to 65° 3(/ N. lat. It
is abundant at times off Newfoundland. In the Azores it
is replaced by Puffinus kuldi, a species which visits the
western coasts of France and the Iberian Peninsula, and
which is abundant in the Mediterranean. The range of the
Great Shearwater in America extends as far south as Florida,
and specimens referred to this species have been obtained
at Tierra del Fuego, and also near the Cape of Good Hope.
Nothing definite is known respecting the nidification of