[nec Gmelin]. Next in date, as regards England, is tlie
one obtained by tlie late D. W. Mitchell, in Mount s
Bay, Cornwall, in the autumn of 1838, and figured in
the woodcut with P. major in the present volume. Then
comes a bird purchased alive by Mr. T. Southwell, on the
26th July, 1851, of a boy who caught it sleeping on the
water at the mouth of the river Ouse, near Lynn, Norfolk,
and which, after being kept for five days, was set up
for the Museum of that town, where it still remains ;
but it was at the time recorded (Zool. pp. 3234, 3279) as
P. major, an error only recently corrected (Tr. Norw. N.
Soc. iii. p. 474). In the autumn of 1866 three Sooty
Shearwaters were obtained, and several more were seen,
as recorded by Mr. W. Boulton (Zool. 1867, p. 543), oft
Bridlington, but these again were supposed to be the young
of P. major. At Whitby a specimen, now in the Museum
of that town, was taken in September 1870 (Zool. 1884,
p. 180); at Bridlington again, one presented to the Oxford
Museum was obtained in 1872 (Zool. 1883, p. 121) ; one
taken off Flamborough in 1881, is in the collection of Mr.
J. Whitaker, of Bainwortli Lodge, Mansfield; two identified
by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, were captured in the same locality
in September 1883 ; and on the 17th of that month a
specimen, which the Editor exhibited at a meeting of the
Zoological Society, was shot by Mr. T. H. Nelson, off
Redcar. On the Northumberland coast one was taken in
August 1873, and is now in the collection of Mr. Raine,
of Durham. According to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, a Dorsetshire
specimen is in the Frome Scientific Institute ; and
Mr. Gatcombe answers for two near Plymouth.
As regards Scotland, it would appear, from Saxby’s ‘ Birds
of Shetland ’ (p. 363), and Mr. R. Gray’s * Birds of the
West of Scotland ’ (p. 505), that a Shearwater, which they
call Pujjinus cinereus, has been obtained in the Shetland
Islands, and off Caithness ; but no descriptions are given to
lead to identification. Mr. J. J. Dalgleish has recently
informed the Editor that a bird shot off North Berwick
on the 27th August, 1878, and recorded (Pr. R. Pliys. Soc.
Edinb. v. pp. 34, 376), under the names of P. cinereus and
P. major, is really a Sooty Shearwater. As regards Ireland,
Mr. R. Warren has now no doubt that the birds which he
saw off Cork Harbour in August, 1849, and recorded by
Thompson (B. Ireland, iii. p. 409) under the name of
P. major, were really Sooty Shearwaters ; Mr. A. G. More
has identified one shot many years ago off the coast of Kerry
(Zool. 1881, p. 334); and Mr. R. Lloyd Patterson has one,
which was recorded, like so many others, as a Great Shearwater,
shot in Belfast Lough on the 29th September, 1869.
The Sooty Shearwater visits the northern coasts of France,
and the Editor has examined, in the collection of Dr. Mar-
mottan, two examples taken off Crotoy, at the mouth of the
Somme, on the 25th of September, 1872, and the 9tli of June,
1875, respectively. It has occurred more than once in the
Fteroe Islands (Zool. 1878, p. 154), and it appears to be
generally distributed over the Atlantic, being especially
common off the Bay of Fundy—where it is known as the
‘ Black Hagdon ’—Labrador, and Newfoundland, ranging
for some distance up the coast of Greenland. These are,
however, by no means the limits of its distribution, for Mr.
Dresser states (B. of Europe, viii. p. 524) that Mr. Salvin
and he are agreed as to the identity of examples from California,
Chili, the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, and New
Zealand. It is from the latter place that we derive our knowledge
of its nidification, the species having been found by Mr.
Travers to be common all round the coasts of the Chatham
group (Tr. New Zeal. Inst. v. p. 220). He states that it
burrows in peaty ground horizontally for three or four feet,
and then turning slightly to the right or left, a rude nest of
twigs and leaves being formed at the extremity of the hole.
In this a single egg is laid, which Mr. Buffer describes as
white stained with reddish-brown, and measuring 3‘25 by
2 in.* The male assists in the work of incubation, and the
young birds, which are very fat, are esteemed a delicacy by
* The egg described by Mr. Buller is that of P. tristris, which is identified by
Messrs. Salvin and Dresser with this species. It seems very large, considering
that the bird is rather smaller than P. huhli, whose egg averages 2'6 by 1'7.