74° SOOTY SHEARWATER. 



breeding-places ; while it ranges northward to California and the 

 Kuril Islands during the summer of the northern hemisphere. 



According to the experience of Mr. Travers in the Chatham 

 Islands, this species makes, in the peaty ground, a burrow which runs 

 horizontally for about three or four feet and then turns to the 

 right or left; while a slight nest of twigs and leaves at the extremity 

 serves as a receptacle for the single white egg. From a series of 

 measurements given by Dr. H. O. Forbes, the average appears to be 

 3 in. by 2 in. On the island of Kapiti, off New Zealand, this 

 species was found breeding in February and even as late as March. 

 The male assists in the work of incubation, and the young birds, 

 which are very fat, are esteemed a delicacy by the Maories, who 

 also hold them over their mouths in order to swallow the oily matter 

 which is disgorged. The old birds roost on the shore, and are very 

 noisy during the night. The food of this species is probably of the 

 same nature as that of its congeners. 



The adult male has the head, neck, and back dark brown, with 

 lighter margins to the feathers of the latter; quills and tail-feathers 

 blackish ; under-parts of a rather greyer brown, each feather being 

 paler in the centre than at the edge ; bill dark brown, paler at the 

 base of the lower mandible ; legs — in fresh specimens — blackish on 

 the outer side and lilac-grey within. Average length 18 in., wing 

 12 in. ; the female being slightly smaller. The young scarcely 

 differ from the adults, except in the greater freshness of plumage ; 

 and this remark applies to nearly all the Petrels. On the wing this 

 bird looks verv black at a distance. 



