486 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



Order XV. TUBINARES 



Fam. PROCELLARIID^. 



LITTLE DUSKY SHEARWATER. Piiffi^nus assimilis, 

 Gould. Length, 10-5 in.; bill, 1'4 in.; wing, 7*4 in.; 

 tarsus, 1*5 in. 



Hah. West Coast of Africa to Cape of Good Hope; 

 breeding in Madeira, Canaries, and Cape Verde Isles. 



One, Valcntia Harbour, co. Kerry, May 11, 1853. Origin- 

 ally described as "the Dusky Petrel, Puffinus ohscivrus" 

 Yarrell, " Hist. Brit. Birds," 3rd ed., vol. iii. p. 659. 

 Formerly in possession of Mr. Blackburn ; since pre- 

 sented by him to the Science and Art Museum, 

 Dublin. 



One, Earsham, near Bungay, Suffolk, April 10, 1858. 

 Picked up dead after a gale. Originally described as 

 P. ohscurus, Stevenson, ZooL, 1858, p. 6096 ; Trans. 

 Norf. Nat. Soc, vol. iii. p. 467, that name being re- 

 tained by Mr. Southwell in the 3rd vol. of Stevenson's 

 "Birds of Norfolk," p. 367, which he completed in 

 1890, as also in his " List of Norfolk Birds," Trans. 

 Norf. Nat. Soc, vol. iv. p. 413. In 1882, however, at 

 a meeting of the Zoological Society in May 16, this 

 specimen was exhibited by the late Mr. Osbert Salvin, 

 in whose opinion, confirmed by that of Mr. Saunders, 

 it was decided to be Piijfinus assimilis, Gould. It 

 is preserved in the collection of birds at Earsham 

 Hall, and has been figured as a frontispiece to Messrs. 

 Galpin and Candler's " Account of the Plants and Birds 

 of Harleston, Norfolk," 1888. 



Ohs. This small Shearwater is about two-thirds 

 the size of P. anglorum. It has the bill black, 

 and the legs and toes black with yellow webs. 



