28 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



did not take wing till we were close upon them. A few 

 days later I examined a specimen in Durham which had 

 been killed off the coast of Northumberland on the 22nd of 

 August. During the same autumn several were shot by 

 North Berwick fishermen at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, 

 but unfortunately they were not preserved ; their wings were 

 cut off and sent, along with those of several hundred Kitti- 

 wakes, etc., to a man in Bristol to be prepared as " feathers " 

 for ladies' hats. 



In 1897 one was observed just inside the Bass on 

 25th August, and another was reported to have been seen 

 about the same date on the " Kingston bank," some two 

 miles N.N.W. of Fidra Island. 



In 1901 only a very few, I am told, were seen. As 

 regards the present year (1902), however, the North Berwick 

 fishermen say they never noticed more. From about the 

 end of August till far on in October they were seldom off 

 at the fishing without seeing one or two, and once about a 

 dozen, I am assured, were in sight at the same time. Manx 

 Shearwaters were also present in more than their usual 

 numbers " as thick as Marrots " (Guillemots), were the 

 expressive words of one of my informants. 



Where do these Sooty Shearwaters come from ? is one of 

 the most interesting of the many ornithological problems 

 yet to be solved. The only known breeding- places of the 

 species are, it would seem, in the New Zealand group of 

 islands ; but it can hardly be supposed that the birds which 

 annually visit the British seas come from a home quite so 

 distant as that. Their nursery is much more likely to be 

 somewhere within the Atlantic area ; but as to whether it is 

 on this side of the equator or to the south of it, as may well 

 be the case, we are at present entirely in the dark. 



