PUFFINID^. 743 



•^r^ 



THE LITTLE DUSKY SHEARWATER. 



PUFFINUS ASSIMILIS, Gould. 



The subject of this illustration was brought to Yarrell by Mr. B. 

 Blackburn of Yalentia Harbour in co. Kerry, who afterwards sent a 

 note to the effect that the bird flew on board a small sloop in that 

 vicinity late in the evening of May nth 1S53. This specimen was 

 exhibited at a meeting of the Linnean Society in the following 

 June, and is now in the Dublin Museum. In ' The Zoologist ' for 

 1858 the late Mr. H. Stevenson stated that he had examined a 

 ■ second example, which was found dead on the Earsham estate, near 

 Bungay in Suffolk, about April loth of the above year; and this, 

 the property of Capt. Meade, of Earsham Hall, was exhibited by 

 the late Mr. Osbert Salvin, at a meeting of the Zoological Society on 

 May i6th 1882. According to the original account, the bird had 

 probably been driven inland by a gale and had come in contact with 

 a tree, since it had a wound on one side of the head as if from a 

 violent blow. Both these specimens were originally referred to the 

 Dusky Shearwater, Fuffinus obscuriis ; but in the ist Edition of this 

 work it was hinted that the names would probably have to be uiter- 

 changed, in view of later knowledge and increased material. Through 

 the kindness of the owners, a re-examination of both examples has 

 taken place, with the result that our visitors prove to be P. assimilis. 

 This small Shearwater breeds on the islets of the Madeiran group, 

 especially the Desertas, where the late Mr. E. Vernon Harcourt, and 

 subsequently Mr. Hurrell, obtained birds and eggs ; it also nests on 

 the Salvages, nearer to the Canaries ; as well as in the Cape Verde 

 Islands. Southward, it is found in the Australian and New Zealand 



