78 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



breeding untfer the huge rocks which had fallen from above. It being impossi- 

 ble to reach this spot after dark, I was unable to obtain, as I had hoped, a 

 series of adult birds, although several had practically attained mature plumage 

 and could only be distinguished by one or two downy filaments still adhering 

 to the feathers on the flanks. Only two eggs were obtained and a few nestlings 

 in down. 



Under the name of Puffinus assimilis, Mr. Ooilvie-Grant (189G) 

 gives the following account of the breeding habits of the Madeiran 

 bird : 



Gould's little shearwater, so far as we ascertained, was the only other bird 

 of the genus that visits Great Salvage. At Porto Santo we had already found 

 it breeding plentifully on the Lime Island, and satisfied ourselves that it is this 

 species — and not P. ohscunis — that occurs there. The young birds do not show 

 the white inner webs to the quills clearly, and hence Mr. Salvin and I were both 

 led to believe that the specimens brought back in 1890 were the young of P. 

 obscnrus. I recently examined more than a dozen of old birds in Padre 

 Schmitz's collection at Madeira, which had been obtained at Porto Santo, and 

 these were, without exception, typical P. assimilis. At Great Salvage we pro- 

 cured downy young in various stages, and one late egg, almost fresh ; this is 

 large for the size of the bird, and the shell is pure white and perfectly oval in 

 shape, the two poles being equally rounded. We never saw much of these 

 birds. During the daytime there were generally some to be seen at sea, often 

 in company with the Mediterranean shearwater, and one night an old female 

 flew into our camp attracted by the powerful lantern. Every night our men 

 used to sally forth in pairs to search for this and other species of petrels in 

 their nesting cavities on the sides of the cliffs — bad enough walking, even in 

 daylight, but no harm came of it. One man carried the lamp (a tin coffee pot 

 it looked like, filled with kerosene oil, and with a coarse cotton wick protruding 

 from the spout), which gave out a brilliant light, while his companion searched 

 tlie numerous miniature caves and crevices till he had filled his own and the 

 lamp bearer's shirts with birds of various kinds. In this way we got several 

 nice adults of this species, which were never to be found* with their young iluring 

 the day. The note of these birds we never ascertained, and when seen on the 

 wing they were always perfectly silent so far as we noticed. 



Eggs. — The single egg of this species is nearly oval in shape, pure 

 white in color, smooth, and without luster. The measurements of 

 43 eggs, in various collections, mainly furnished by Eev. F. C. R. 

 Jourdain, average 50 by 35 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 54.2 by 35.5, 50.5 by 37.5, 45 by M, and 51 by 

 32.5 millimeters. 



Plumages. — BuUer (1888) describes the nestling as "covered with 

 very thick slate-colored down on the upper and white on the under 

 surface " and says : " A fledgling which I received from Sunday 

 Island (one of the Kermadecs) is a very pretty object. The plumage 

 is as in the adult, except that the longer wing-coverts and inner 

 secondaries are minutely tipped with white; but the long, fluffy, 

 dark-grey down still adheres to the sides of the body, and as the bird 

 squats it looks as if reposing in a luxurious nest of down, which pro- 

 jects an inch or more from the body, and has a charming effect." 



