58 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Food. — Audubon's (1840) description and j)late both evidently 

 refer to this species, under the name Pufflnus clnereus, in which he 

 evidently was more nearly correct than some later writers in 

 identifying this with the Mediterranean species. He says of its 

 food : " In the stomach of those which I opened I found fishes, por- 

 tions of crabs, seaweeds, and oily substances." All of the shear- 

 waters are, to a certain extent, scavengers of the seas and probably 

 feed on whatever scraps of animal food they can pick up. They 

 follow the whales and schools of large predaceous fishes to pick up 

 bits of their food left on the surface and frequent the vicinity of 

 fishing vessels to gorge themselves on the oifal thrown overboard 

 while cleaning fish. They are particularly fond of cod livers and 

 other oily portions, with which they can be readily tolled up to the 

 boat or caught on baited hooks. 



Behavior. — ^The flight of this species is much like that of the other 

 large shearwaters, swift, strong, and graceful. It glides along 

 smoothly on its long, stiff, pointed wings, rising easily over the crests 

 of the waves and coasting down into the valleys between them. It 

 usually flies very close to the surface, even in the roughest weather, 

 and I have often admired the skill and confidence with which it rises 

 and skims over the tops of the largest waves in which it seems as if it 

 must be engulfed. Audubon (1840) says that " like the small petrels, 

 it frequently uses its feet to support itself on the surface without 

 actually alighting." I have never seen it do this. It swims lightly 

 and rapidly and frequently dives beneath the surface in pursuit of 

 its food. In calm weather it experiences a little difficulty in rising 

 from the surface, but in rough weather it glides off the top, of a 

 wave with the utmost ease. It is easily distinguished, on the wing, 

 from the greater shearwater by its larger size, its lighter color, its 

 big yellow bill, and by the lack of any distinctly dark cap so con- 

 spicuous in the other. 



Its behavior toward other species is not above suspicion. Mr. 

 B. H. Dutcher (1889), who saw some of these shearwater near Little 

 Gull Island, New York, stated that they " seemed always to keep in 

 company with the jaegers, and to be engaged in the same occupation, 

 that of robbing the terns." Mr. Ogilvie-Grant (1896) adds the fol- 

 lowing evidence of misconduct : 



It has already been remarked that we were inclined to suspect the pardelas 

 of stealing the young of the yellow-footed herring gull, but it must be admitted 

 that there was no direct evidence against them, beyond the fact that they 

 quartered the ground every evening, apiJarently in search of food, in the imme- 

 diate neighborhood of the gulls' nests, and were armed with strong hooked 

 bills, which looked capable of making short work of downy young, and caused 

 their owners to be regarded as suspicious characters. 



