60 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



specimens of this form taken off our coasts. Probably the Mediter- 

 ranean form is much commoner here than is generally supposed, as 

 all the specimens examined were labeled " Cory's shearwater " and 

 were mistaken for that form. 



ARDENNA CARNEIPES (Gould). 

 PALE-FOOTEB SHEARWATER. 



HABITS. 



This large dusky shearwater resembles the sooty shearwater and 

 might easily be mistaken for it in life, but it is distinguished from it 

 by having a light-colored bill and flesh-colored feet and by the absence 

 of any whitish or ashy gray on the under wing coverts. Owing to 

 its resemblance to the commoner species it may have been often over- 

 looked and perhaps has visited our Pacific coast much oftener than 

 is supposed. It has only recently been added to our list. Mr. Rollo 

 H. Beck (1910) has reported the capture of 10 specimens of this 

 shearwater, taken at various seasons of the year in the vicinity of 

 Point Pinos, California. 



The following quotations from Godman (1907) will give a fair 

 idea of what we know of its life history : 



Mr. A. J. Campbell gives the habitat as the " seas of Western Australia, and 

 probably other parts of the southern coasts, including Tasmania." Mr. Ernest 

 Saunders procured specimens on Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. 



Dr. E. P. Ramsay, who has written an account of P. carneipes, says that it 

 represents P. tentiirostris on the coasts of New South Wales and South Aus- 

 tralia, where it is as numerous as that species in certain places. He further 

 states that these shearwaters frequent the Solitary Islands in great numbers 

 during the breeding season, which extends from September till December. 



Sir Walter Buller relates that P. carneipes breeds in large colonies on some 

 of the small islands, and is comparatively common off the coast of New Zea- 

 land — Captain Fairchild procured two living birds for him, which he found 

 nesting on White Island in the beginning of November. After the breeding 

 season in Australia P. carneipes passes north to the seas of Japan, but has not 

 yet been found in the intervening area, nor is it known to nest in its northern 

 habitat. Mr. Seebohm, who records its occurrence in Japanese waters, observes 

 that it is probably a nonbreeding summer visitor in the North Pacific, and sup- 

 posing this to be correct, we may regard P. carneipes as a petrel which, like 

 Oceanites oceanica, breeds in the southern hemisphere during our winter, and 

 visits the northern hemisphere during our summer, but in the latter instance 

 without breeding. 



Nesting. — The nesting habits resemble those of other species of the 

 genus. Doctor Ramsay, in acknowledging the recepit by the Australian 

 Museum of a fine series of birds and eggs from the Solitary Islands, 

 gives the following notes, derived from his correspondence : The birds 

 arrived early in September, and at once began excavating their nest- 

 ing holes, which consisted of short burrows about 6 inches in diam- 

 eter and from 12 to 20 inches in length. The eggs were laid at night, 



