72 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL. MUSEUM. 



(1884) has this to say of the Manx shearwater in his Birds of Ber- 

 muda : 



A specimen in Mr. Bartram's collection was captured while sitting on its 

 solitary egg in a rocky hole on a small island in Castle Harbor, in April, 1864. 

 The egg was unfortunately broken. There is no record of the birds' breeding 

 on any other occasion, nor of any other specimen being obtained. 



The Manx shearwater is generally said to be of accidental occur- 

 rence in Greenland, usually on the authority of Professor Eeinhardt 

 (1824). Captain Collins, who has had many opportunities to study 

 the petrels and shearwaters on the Grand Banks and other Ameri- 

 can fishing grounds, has never seen it. Saunders (1889) says: "I 

 saw two examples outside the Straits of Belle Isle on August 13-14, 

 1884, looking very black as compared with the great shearwater." 



Nesting. — The Manx shearwater breeds in colonies on high cliffs, 

 turfy slopes, and rocky islands. A single smooth white egg of fine 

 texture is laid at the end of a burrow or in a crevice or under a 

 fragment of rock, either on the bare rock or soil, or in a nest loosely 

 constructed of dry grass or leaves. Turle (1891) says of its nesting 

 habits on the Skellig Rocks : 



There are plenty of shearwaters on the Little Skellig, but their great breed- 

 ing grounds are on Puffin Island, between the Little Skellig and the mainland. 

 This island ought to be called Shearwater Island rather than Puffin Island. 

 I was astonished at the enormous number we found nesting ; they seem com- 

 pletely to have taken possession of the island, and far predominate over the 

 puffins; indeed, the whole of both sides of the island was inhabited by them. 

 They lay only one egg, some considerable distance down their burrows; sev- 

 eral which I dug out were four feet from the entrance. They make no nest, 

 but lay their egg on the bare ground. In every case where I took an egg 

 the old bird allowed itself to be lifted off the egg upon which it was sitting. 

 These birds are never seen at their breeding grounds in the day time. 



Eggs. — The measurements of 45 eggs, made by Rev. F. C. R. Jour- 

 dain, average 60.64 by 42.58 millimeters; the largest eggs measure 

 66.5 by 42 and 63.7 by 45.1; the smallest eggs measure 56 by 42.5 

 and 58.5 by 39 millimeters. 



Plumages. — The nestlings are covered with sooty-brown down 

 with the exception of a white stripe along the center of the belly. 

 The adult is about 15 inches long, a little larger than the Audubon 

 shearwater, which it resembles in general coloration, and about 3 

 inches shorter than the greater shearwater. The bill is blackish- 

 brown, the legs and feet yellowish flesh color. The plumage of the 

 upper parts is sooty-black, of the lower parts, white. It would be 

 well to bear these field marks in mind for a critical examination of 

 the large flocks of shearwaters seen on the Labrador coast, for ex- 

 ample, together with the judicious use of the gun, which might 

 serve to give this species a more secure standing than it now holds 

 in the American avifauna. 



