142 BIRDS OF ICELAND 



•f^ [Puffinus griseus (GmeL). 

 Sooty Shearwater. 



Native name : ' Skrofa,' no doubt. 



I am responsible for the appearance of this bird 

 in the Iceland list, having seen from the deck of the 

 Thyra (D.M.S.) on July 25, 1894, about sixty miles 

 south-east of EskifjorSr, a bird I could put down as 

 nothing else. It flew, or glided, round the ship all 

 the morning, several times within a few yards of where 

 I leant on the taffrail watching it, and once or twice 

 near enough, I believe, for me to have caught it with a 

 butterfly net. I put it down as about a foot long (its 

 head being then drawn in on the shoulders in flight), 

 and about two in expanse of wing. Colour sooty black 

 all over; bill long, slender, and much hooked at the 

 tip. This is, in reality, rather an under-estimate of 

 the size of the Sooty Shearwater, which is 17 inches 

 long (extended), and has a wing of about 13 inches. 

 A few days later I saw another in the AxarfjorSr 

 (north-east), and an observant fellow-passenger, to 

 whom I pointed it out, assured me afterwards that 

 he had seen another a few days later still, on the west 

 coast, from the same ship. 



It is not unlikely to occur as a rare straggler, as 

 it has been noticed in the Faeroes, and is not un- 

 common on the North American fishing-banks. My 

 surmise (Zoologist, 1895, p. 24) that it might possibly 

 breed in Iceland is, however, an unjustifiable one, as 



