1 6 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Birds " (2nd ed., p. 738) that, on alighting, this species " strikes 

 the water with great violence, in a manner quite different 

 from that of a Gull, and then dives " ; such behaviour not 

 having come under his notice. The reference to the principal 

 source of my information was promptly given, but it sub- 

 sequently occurred to me that there might be other ornitholo- 

 gists who were unfamiliar with a very valuable paper upon 

 this Shearwater. It is to be found in the " Annual Report 

 of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries [of the United 

 States] for 1882," and its full title is 'Notes on the Habits 

 and Methods of Capture of various species of Sea Birds 

 that occur on the Fishing Banks off the Eastern Coast of 

 North America, and which are used as Bait for catching 

 Codfish by New England Fishermen,' by Capt. J. W. Collins. 

 The author, whom I had the pleasure of meeting for the 

 first time in 1882, when he gave me much information 

 about sea-birds, had enjoyed with his brother, Capt. D. E. 

 Collins, exceptional opportunities, extending over many 

 years, for observing the aforesaid Shearwaters upon the 

 fishing-banks, and he was, I believe, the first to give his 

 reasons for believing that P. gravis did not breed in the 

 northern hemisphere. He had noticed that the arrival of 

 the " hagdons," as these Shearwaters are locally called, began 

 towards the end of May, and that the birds remained until 

 the middle of October, and occasionally later. Sometimes 

 they became scarce on the fishing -banks in July, owing, it 

 was surmised, to an abundance of squid and other food in 

 the offing. " When or where the hagdon breeds is unknown 

 to me," says Capt. Collins. " My opinion is that it breeds 

 in [our] winter. I have opened many hundreds of these 

 birds, but have never found their sexual organs in a con- 

 dition that would indicate they were incubating." Capt. 

 Collins told me that his experience was confirmed by the 

 bait- purveyors, and also that, shortly after the arrival of 

 the birds, the sea was strewn with their body -feathers the 

 primaries and other flight-feathers being shed and renewed, 

 somewhat abruptly, from the end of June to the latter part 

 of July. The late Baron d'Hamonville stated, a few years 

 ago, that this rapid moult of the flight-feathers took place 

 in the Manx Shearwater (P. anglorum). When the Great 



