72 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



possible that the breeding home of the species may be in Southern 

 Greenland, but the identification of the eggs obtained there is not 

 at all satisfactory, and Mr. Howard Saunders considers that the 

 nesting-place of the Great Shearwater is still unknown. 



THE MANX SHEAKWATEE. 

 (Puffin us a ngloru m .) 



Plate 20, Fig. 1. 



The Manx Shearwater is par excellence the Shearwater of the 

 British Islands, where it is widely distributed, breeding in many 

 localities. It is exclusively an Atlantic species, breeding only on 

 the European coasts. The principal colonies are in Iceland, the 

 Faroes, St. Kilda, and the islands off the coast of Brittany, and 

 south to the Azores. In the Mediterranean it is represented by 

 P. yelkouanus, which sometimes strays north to the coasts of 

 Devonshire and Cornwall.* 



The nest is merely a little bunch of dry grass, according to 

 Dixon, and the holes in which they are placed are sometimes very 

 long and under masses of rock, where it is impossible to reach 

 the eggs. The burrows in St. Kilda were found by him to be four 

 or five feet in length, and are made by the birds themselves. The 

 single egg is laid between the early part of May and the middle of 

 June. It is pure white, much smoother in texture, and more 

 glossy, than that of the Fulmar. It varies in length from 2'5 

 to 2'3 inches, and in breadth from 1*75 to 155 inch. 



THE DUSKY SHE AB WATER 



(Pujjinus obscurus.) 

 Plate 20, Fig. 2. 

 Two specimens of the Dusky Shearwater have been captured 

 in Great Britain. It is a tropical and sub-tropical species, 

 breeding both in the Atlantic and the Pacific. 



The breeding-habits of the species are similar to those of the 

 Manx Shearwater. It lays a single pure white e^, which varies 

 in length from 1"45 to 13 inch. 



* Cf. Salvin, Cat. B, Brit. Mus., XXV., p. 379. 



