I 4 2 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Common Shrew and a Water Shrew, which latter is placed 

 in a different genus. The Field Mouse and the Harvest 

 Mouse are equally distinct, and I think Darwinians will 

 agree that all these species have been differentiated for the 

 past ten thousand years or more. 



THE GREAT SHEARWATER IN SCOTTISH 



WATERS. 



By ALFRED NEWTON, M.A., F.R.S. 



SO little is known of the appearance of the Great Shear- 

 water, Puffinus gravis (O'Reilly), on the seas and shores of 

 Scotland and its isles, that I may perhaps be allowed to put 

 on record certain facts concerning it which may be new to 

 some readers of this journal, especially as one of them seems 

 to be of rather general interest. In these pages it is un- 

 necessary to refer particularly to prior occurrences of the 

 species in Scottish waters. It is enough to remark that it 

 was not included in the late Mr. Robert Gray's " Birds of 

 the West of Scotland," published in 1871, and that all the 

 known instances, not amounting to half a dozen, have been 

 mentioned in one or other of the volumes of the well-known 

 series of " Vertebrate Faunas " which we owe to Messrs. 

 Harvie- Brown and Buckley. More than this, I may say 

 that Mr. Henry Evans, whose opportunities of observing 

 birds at sea on the west coast of Scotland have been im- 

 measurably greater than those enjoyed by any other 

 naturalist, while his habit of bringing a telescope to bear 

 on almost every bird that comes within range ensures his 

 having made the best use of those opportunities, has in- 

 formed me that, until the occasion I am about to mention, 

 he never set eye on a Great Shearwater. 



On the 2;th of June 1894 I had the good fortune to 

 be on board Mr. Evans's yacht while steaming northward up 

 the Great Minch making for North Rona. About noon we 

 came up with the Butt of Lewis, from which we were not 

 very far, and there was almost a dead calm. Soon after I 

 happened to see a pair of birds sitting on the water near the 



