73^ GREAT SHEARWATER. 



Collins States that on the fishing-grounds off New England and British 

 North America it arrives in May, remaining till October or Novem- 

 ber — according to the time of the first snow ; and, although in the 

 course of thirty years' experience in taking birds of this and the 

 next species for bait he must have seen thousands opened, he never 

 found one which showed any signs of breeding. The Great Shearwater 

 probably resorts to some of the islands in the Southern Ocean for 

 the purpose of reproduction; specimens having been obtained off 

 the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego, as well as near the Cape 

 of Good Hope. Round the Azores and the islets between Madeira 

 and the Canaries the resident species is P. knhli (identical with 

 P. borealis of Cory), which visits the western coasts of France and 

 the Peninsula, and is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ; this 

 species is of a much paler brown on the upper parts, and has a 

 yellow-coloured and deeper bill. 



Nothing is known of the nidification of the Great Shearwater, for 

 the egg figured by Hewitson from the Madeiran Desertas is that 

 of P. kuhli. The food consists chiefly of squid, and Mr. Gurney 

 found the horny jaws of small cuttle-fish in the stomach of a bird shot 

 near Flamborough; but any animal substance is greedily swallowed, 

 and, as already mentioned, this species is systematically taken with 

 a hook, to furnish bait for fish. When alighting this Shearwater 

 strikes the water with great violence — in a manner quite different 

 from that of a Gull — and then dives ; pursuing its prey under water 

 with great rapidity, and often tearing bait from the fishermen's hooks. 

 In the Atlantic it may be seen skimming the surface of the water 

 without any apparent effort, either wing alternately depressed or 

 sharply elevated ; but at times it flaps its pinions freely. 



The adult has the bill dark brown ; head and nape ash-brown ; 

 neck whitish, when fully extended in flight ; feathers of the mantle 

 ash-brown with paler edges ; quills and tail-feathers blackish ; upper 

 tail-coverts mottled brown and white ; under-parts white, with some 

 pale brown running up the centre of the abdomen and on the 

 thighs; under tail-coverts brown; legs and feet pinkish-white in life, 

 drying yellow. Length 19 in. ; wing 127 in. 



In 1822, Faber, who had never handled a specimen, gave the 

 name Procellaria major to a bird which was probably of this species, 

 and the name has been widely adopted ; but in 181 8 O'Reilly had 

 fully described the bird, with an excellent figure, under the name of 

 Procellaria gravis (Voy. to Greenland &c., p. 140, pi. 12, fig. 1). 



