MANX SHEARWATER 



19 



deriv^ed from the bold swoop with which these birds pkinc,fc breast- 

 forwards into the sea, quite unHke the manner in which a gull or a 

 tern enters the water. The single white egg may be deposited either 

 on the bare soil of the bottom of the burrow, or, and this more 

 generally, on a small carpet of dried grass or other herbage. It is 

 believed that a second egg is laid after the first nestling has taken 

 its departure from the burrow. When the egg is taken, the parent 

 generally remains sulking in her burrow for several days before taking 

 her final departure. The egg is pure white, and measures from 2.3 to 

 2.65 inches in length. Instead of departing from the burrow as soon as 

 fully fledged, the nestling often remains there for days longer, and is fed 

 so assiduously by its hard-worked parents that it becomes literally a 

 mass of fat, in which condition it is regarded as a great delicacy b}' the 

 hardy fishermen of Orkney and Shetland, although it is probable that 

 such a rich and oily dish would not appeal to more southern palates. 

 Occasionally the egg is deposited in the crevice of a rock instead of in 

 a burrow. 



Of the Levantine shearwater i^Pjiffinus yelkonanus), a Mediter- 

 ranean species of rather larger size, and somewhat paler and browner 

 in colour above, with 

 dusky brown flanks 

 and (usually) under 

 tail-coverts, a speci- 

 men was taken at 

 Torbay in 1875 and 

 a second at Plymouth 

 about the same year, 

 while several were 

 secured at Scar- 

 borough in 1899 and 

 1900. Probably, in- 

 deed, the species is far 

 less uncommon on the 

 British coasts than is 

 generally supposed, as 

 when on the wing it 

 cannot apparently be distinguished from the Manx shearwater, of which 

 it is the IMediterranean representative. 



Of another shearwater, formerly regarded as the dusky shearwater 

 (P. obsciirus), but now identified with the little dusky shearwater 

 (/*. assiniilis), two specimens were recorded from the British Islands 



HE ROWLAND WARD STUDIOS 



LITTLE DL'SKV SHEAKWATEK. 



