Dr Heineken on the Birds of Madeira. 2SI 



ever cross together, or even associate intimately. A.n interme- 

 diate plumage is never seen, and they are both constant in 

 their marks to a feather. The berries of the Persea foetens are 

 found in its stomach ; and during the berry season the birds 

 are fattest and best flavoured. They build in high trees in the 

 thickest and most inaccessible places ; and as a nest is rarely 

 taken, I can give no account of either the eggs or young. They 

 are killed generally vvhen drinking. 



Procellaria Afijinho. 



Bill shorter than the head, and compressed towards the tip ; 

 nostrils united in a single tube at the surface of the bill, but 

 the septum distinctly seen a little within the orifice ; tail 

 slightly forked, extremity of wings not surpassing it ; plu- 

 mage entirely brown black or soot colour ; bill black ; legs 

 smoky; length 11 inches; tarsus 1 inch. (Adults taken in 

 spring and summer.) 



This bird belongs to the Petrel hirondelle section of Tem- 

 minck's Manuel. It is larger and thicker than the P. pelagica, 

 and has no white in any part of the plumage. I cannot find it 

 described in any of the few works to which I have access. It 

 is well known here as the " Anjinho'** (literally " little angel,"' 

 but figuratively perhaps " imp,"' for there is certainly more of 

 darkness than light both in its hue and habits,) and is found 

 on the uninhabited and unfrequented islands of this place and 

 Porto Santo, where it breeds, laying one dirty looking egg. It 

 appears first in February and March ; begins to lay early in 

 June ; the young are hatched in July, and after September 

 few or none are seen until the following spring. It is never 

 seen in the bay or near the inhabited or much frequented parts 

 of the island, or in flocks, as our other petrel (Procellaria 

 puffinus) is, but keeps out at sea, or in the neighbourhood of 

 its haunts, and is in a great measure nocturnal in its habits. 

 At the Denetas, (uninhabited islands about 8 leagues S. E. of 

 Madeira,) it breeds in considerable numbers along with the 

 P. puffinus, and its young are taken and salted indiscrimi- 

 nately with those of that bird. The fowlers know the nest 

 from the intolerable stench of the hole in which it is made. 

 Although so well known, and apparently so much within reaehj 



