PUFFINID^. 



739 



THE SOOTY SHEARWATER. 



PuFFiNUS GRiSEUS (J. F. Gmelin). 



The Sooty Shearwater was for many years considered to be either 

 a dark form or the young of the Oreat Shearwater, and there is 

 consequently some difficulty in saying to which of these species 

 many of the earlier records refer. Identified examples have been 

 obtained — during the months of our summer and autumn — at 

 North Berwick in Scotland ; near Newbiggin in Northumberland in 

 1897; along the coast of Yorkshire, especially off Flamborough ; 

 near Lynn in Norfolk; and in the Channel from Sussex to Cornwall; 

 but this species is everywhere much rarer than its larger congener. 

 In Ireland individuals have been secured on the coast of Kerry and 

 in Belfast Lough, while others have been observed. 



This Shearwater has occurred in the Faeroes and once near 

 Heligoland ; while it visits the coasts of France, and has been 

 recorded from Portugal. It is generally distributed over the North 

 Atlantic, and is well known as the " Black Hagdon " on the North 

 American fishing-banks, where, however, Capt. Collins says that it 

 is far less plentiful than the Cireat Shearwater. All its breeding- 

 haunts appear to be in the southern hemisphere, and it is from the 

 Chatham group and other islands and coasts in New Zealand waters 

 that our knowledge of its nidification is derived. In the Pacific 

 Mr. A. A. Lane met with this species in vast numbers on the coast 

 of Chile in the early part of November, probably on the way to their 



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