DUBUN NATXriLLL HI8T0RT 800IBTY. 83 



features ; but, as 1 have alluded to the peculiar outline of form of the Teara^ht 

 rock, 1 may mention that the loose and slaty rock, so easily detached, and which 

 renders the ascent difficult and dangerous, belongs to the Silurian strata, and 

 possesses great interest in a paleeontological character — this, with the fossilife- 

 rous slates in the neighbourhood of Ventry, Dunquin, and Ferriter's Co?e, will 

 afford investigation of interest to the geologist. The North Blasket and Wes- 

 tern Island, as well as Innisnabro, are famous for the multitude of rabbits, and 

 are the breeding haunts of the storm petrel {Tlialasiddroma pe/ojKca), termed, in 

 Irish, Gourdal. I have passed close under both Skellig Islands, but have been 

 unable to land. The Lesser Skellig is the breeding place of the gannet, and I 

 am certain of several of the shearwaters and petrels. Having drawn this out- 

 line, I shall turn to another portion of my paper, the occurrence of the Greater 

 shearwater (^Puffinu$ major), to which I have been led by the rather dubious ac- 

 counts of the distinctive characters, and of the mode of capture of the specimens 

 taken on the Irish coast. In the •• Annals of Natural History" for 1842, page 

 433, Mr. Thompson records two specimens of Puffinus major, on the authority 

 of Mr. Robert Davis, Jun., of Clonmel, obtained off the coast of Waterford, and 

 having subsequently the opportunity of examining one of the birds, he remarked 

 that the Irish specimens were identical with those described by Temminck as 

 frequenting the more northern seas of Europe, and with the Puffinus cinercus 

 figured by Selby. I>r. Ball, who observed the greater shearwater off Bundoran, 

 states that they appeared to be much more dusky than the Manx petrel, and 

 these views are copied by Mr. Thompson in his work on the Birds of Ireland, 

 also giving in addition the remarks of Mr. Robert Warren, Jun., who says : '* In 

 August, 1849, when hake-fishing off Cork Harbour, he saw two of the greater 

 shearwaters, which were easily distinguished from the P. Anglorum (of which 

 numbers were segn the same day), by their larger size and darker colour." 

 About two years ago a very fine specimen of the greater shearwater was ob- 

 tained by Richard Chute, Esq., from Dingle Bay. and, as I saw it in the recent 

 state, I noticed that it had all the characteristics of the bird obtained in 1832 

 by Mr. Strickland from the Tees mouth, and described by him as P. fuliginosus. 

 Mr. Strickland, however, subsequently obtained another bird of lighter mark- 

 ings and colour, apparently in the adult plumage, and in relation to which the 

 inquiries would lead us to be satisfied that P. fuliginosus of Strickland, and the 

 P. cinereus of Selby, were but the young of P. major, and not identical with the 

 true P. cinereus. You will observe that the birds now before you, and which 

 were captured in Dingle Bay, have very different characters from those hitherto 

 described as occurring on the Irish coasts. Superior in size, they are also very 

 different from the Manx shearwater, and with the plumage of the dusky petrel ; 

 are lighter in all the upper surface ; the head, cheeks, and back of an ash grey, 

 with the edges of the feathers, on their external margins, beautifully marked, of 

 a lighter colour, waves of light gray on the sides, while the throat and all the 

 under surface is pure white; thus being lighter in all its shades, and not having 

 the dusky and dark colour of the backs and wings of the P. Anglorum and P. 

 obscurus. These birds are evidently the true P. major in the adult plumage ; 

 and although it has been recently noticed as having been taken off Youghal on 

 gentlemen's lines, this is the first description of the adult bird captured on the 

 Irish coast, as Mr. Thompson's descriotions only refer to the figure and charac- 

 ters of the bird given by Selby, and which is identical with the specimen in Mr. 

 Chute's collection, being an immature bird, or the young of the year. The true 

 P. cinereus would strike me as being altogether distinct, of a larger size, and of 

 a universally dark colour. Darwin mentions the P. cinereus to be similar in co- 

 lour to P. gigantea, being of a dirty black. He saw hundreds of thousands of 

 them behind the Island of Chiloe, flying for several hours in one direction, and 

 states that when part of the flock settled oil. ^^e water the surface was black- 

 ened. They are frequent in the Antarctic regions, and numerous on the great 

 banks of Newfoundland, attendant on the fishing vessels. They are equally nu- 

 merous with the Fulmar petrel {Proceliaria gtacialis)^ recorded in the biros of 



