the Great Shearwater, for the bird that breeds on the
Desertas, near Madeira, and the egg of which was figured by
Hewitson as belonging to P. major, is really P. kuhli. Nor
have we many details respecting its habits. Its flight is
described as very striking; with a single movement of the
wings it alters its course, gliding down the valleys^ between
the Atlantic rollers with a barely perceptible quiver, and
without any apparent effort. As regards its food, Mr.
Gurney states that the stomach of the bird shot near Flam-
borough contained the horny jaws of about half a dozen
small cuttle-fish : the jaws varying from a sixteenth to a
quarter of an inch in diameter; and similar remains have
been found in the stomach of the Fulmar.
In the bird from which the lower figure in our woodcut was
taken, the bill is dark purplish-brown, the hooked tip of the
upper mandible bluish-grey; irides dark brown ; head and
occiput dark ash-grey; back of the neck almost white; back,
wing-coverts, and tertials, ash-grey ; all the margins gieyish-
wliite; primaries and tail-feathers blackish-brown; chin,
sides, and front of neck, the breast, and sides of the body,
white ; lower belly, vent, and under tail-coverts dull white,
slightly varied with ash-brown ; legs, toes, and their membranes,
flesh-coloured, drying to yellow. The whole length
is eighteen inches; of the wing, from the bend, thirteen
inches; whole length of the bill one inch and seven-eighths ;
of the tubular portion half an inch ; of the tarsus two inches
and one-eighth; of the middle toe and claw two inches and
seven-eighths.
A specimen in the collection of Mr. E. Hargitt, taken at
Fiskenasset, Greenland, on the ‘28th June, 1876, has the
outer primaries in their sheaths and undeveloped.
TUBIN ARES. PROCELLA RIIDJi.
P uffinus griseus (Gmelin*).
THE SOOTY SHEARWATER.
The Sooty Shearwater represented by the upper figure
in the woodcut at the head of the preceding species, is a
more frequent visitor than has generally been supposed to
the shores and the vicinity of the British Islands. As
already stated, it was, until recently, considered to be the
young of the Great Shearwater, and it is consequently
impossible, in the absence of any description, to say to
which of the two species many of the earlier records refer.
Those which the Editor has been able to identify with the
Sooty Shearwater are the following; but there are doubtless
many more, for although not observed in such large flocks
as the Great Shearwater has been in the south-west of
England, the present species appears to be more generally
distributed, especially along the eastern side.
The first example of which there is any record was exhibited
at a meeting of the Zoological Societ}'' on the 12tli
of July, 1882, by Mr. Arthur Strickland, of Boynton, near
Bridlington, in Yorkshire, who stated that it was shot by
Mr. George Marwood, jun., of Busby, in the middle of
August, 1828, on a very stormy day, at the mouth of the
Tees ; it was seen early in the morning, sitting on the water
like a duck, and was shot as it was rising; its manner of
flight was consequently not noticed. This specimen, which
was then identified with Puffinus fuliginosus, Kuhl, was
subsequently figured on the same plate with an example ol
the Great Shearwater (P. major), by Gould, in his ‘ Birds
of Europe,’ under the impression that they belonged to the
same species. Another, obtained on the Northumberland
coast, was described and figured by Selby (111. Brit. Orn. ii.
p. 528, pi. 102*), under the name of P. cinereus, Stephens
* Procellaria grisea, Ganelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 564 (1788) ex Latham.
VOL. IV. D