42 The Irish Naturalist. February, 



THE GREAT AND SOOTY SHEARWATERS 

 ON THE SOUTH COAST. 



BY R. J. USSHKR. 



The Great Shearwater, and still more the Sooty Shearwater, 

 have been recorded so seldom round Ireland that every 

 occurrence of these antarctic-breeding birds is of interest. 

 The former has indeed been observed in large numbers on 

 the Kerry coast by Chute in 1854, and speaking of Ireland 

 generally, it is off the South and South-West that both 

 species have been chiefly met with ; while August and 

 September are the months when most of the occurrences of 

 Great Shearwaters have taken place, and all the occurrences of 

 Sooty Shearwaters that are known. The only preserved 

 Irish- taken specimens of the latter are — one at Chute Hall, 

 and a second in the possession of Mr. Eloyd Patterson. Our 

 Dublin Museum does not possess one. 



As Great Shearwaters have been repeatedly taken on fishing- 

 lines, and will readily seize refuse thrown to them, it is to be 

 hoped that new specimens may be obtained to afford fresh 

 evidence as to the state of the internal organs and the season 

 when these birds breed. 



In 1899 I was favoured by Mr. H. Becher with observations 

 of both species made that autumn off the coasts of Kerry and 

 Cork ; and I am happy to be able to give the following account 

 received from him of notes made during his cruise in 

 September, 1900, when he found these birds surprisingly 

 numerous off the coasts of Kerry, Cork, and Waterford : — ■ 



" My brothers and I had a cruise of about ten days this year 

 in our boat ' Zulu,' starting from Queenstown, going to 

 Dingle Bay and back to Kingstown : we were sailing about 

 six or seven days, and I think except on two days I saw Sooty 

 Shearwaters and Great Shearwaters every day. The first 

 occasion was on the nth of September; we had sailed from 

 Baltimore, and had got near the Bull Rock in the afternoon, 

 when one Sooty Shearwater passed. On September 13th when 

 returning from Dingle Bay a Great Shearwater passed the 

 ' Zulu ' near the Skelligs. The next morning we were off 



