2i6 I'l: IREL GROUP 



All the shearwaters, in common with certain allied genera, may 

 be easily distinguished from the fulmar by the absence of transverse 

 ridges on the sides of the palate ; while the shearwaters themselves, 

 of which there are some twenty species with a world-wide distribution, 

 are specially distinguished by the nostrils terminating in two distinct 

 apertures, directed forwards and upwards, with a wide division between 

 them, while the shank of the leg is laterally compressed, with a sharp 

 front edge, and there are only twelve tail-feathers. 



As implied by its popular name, and likewise the scientific title 

 Puffinus tiiajor by w hich it is designated in the older works on British 

 birds, the greater shearwater is the largest representative of the group 

 with which we have to deal, measuring no less than 19 inches in length. 

 In colour the plumage is dark brown above and while below, with the 

 exception of the sides of the breast, the flanks, the abdomen, and the 

 under tail-coverts, which are brown, the white tips to the outer upper 

 tail-coverts, and the paler edges to the feathers of the back and the 

 wing-coverts ; while the beak is dark brown, and the legs are pinkish 

 white. Immature birds do not differ from the adults in colouring, and 

 the chick appears to be still unknown. 



In all the petrel group, it ma\' be mentioned, the nestling possesses 

 tubular nostrils of the same t)-pe as its parents. 



The great shearwater is a bird to which climate apparently makes 

 no difference, since its range extends in the Atlantic from Greenland, 

 Iceland, and the Faroes in the north, as well as in parts of the Btdtic, 

 right across the tropics (where it is found in Florida) to the seas of 

 the Cape of Good Hope, Kerguelen Island, the Falkland Islands, and 

 Tierra del F'uego. It docs not, however, occupy the whole of this 

 extensive area, as in the Azores and Canaries (as well as in the 

 Mediterranean) it is replaced by Kuhl's shearwater {P. ktiJili), which 

 is also the species commonK* met with on the western coasts of P'rance, 

 Spain, and Portugal. It is not a little remarkable that the brceiling- 

 area of the great shearwater is still (19051 unknown, although it is 

 considered probable that it is somewhere in the southern seas. An 

 example of Kuhl's shearwater was picked up dead on the beach at 

 I'evensey, Sussex, in February 1906. 



To the coasts of the Scilly Islands, Cornwall, and De\on, the great 

 shearwater is an annual visitor in autumn, but as we proceed eastwards 

 along the coast it becomes gradually scarcer and more uncertain in its 

 appearance, while in East Anglia and the northern counties of England 

 it is always very rare. On the other hand, still farther north, as at 

 Rockhall and .St. Kilda, it has been seen locally in some numbers. 



