GREAT SHEARWATER. 13 



in the above illustration, is an irregular autumnal visitor 

 to the British coasts, sometimes making its aj)pearance in 

 considerable numbers off the shores of Cornwall and the 

 Scilly Islands. In the former Editions of this work it 

 was confounded with its somewhat smaller congener, the 

 Dusky Shearwater, Puffimis griseus, the upper figure in the 

 plate ; and this confusion having been general, and only 

 recently dispelled, it is still very difficult to assign to their 

 proper species many of the Shearwaters recorded from time 

 to time under the name of Pitjinus major. This difficulty 

 is increased by the fact that the Dusky Shearwater, which is 

 always of a sooty hue, was supposed to be merely the imma- 

 ture stage of P. major. The late Mr. D. W. Mitchell, then 

 of Penzance, who furnished the Author with the birds of 

 both species from which the figures here given were drawn, 

 supplied in addition the following account of the appear- 

 ance of this species on the coast of Cornwall : — " In 

 November, 1839, a man brought me a Puffimis major alive, 

 which he said he had found asleep in his boat when he 

 went oif to unmoor her, preparatory to a fishing expedition. 

 I suppose this happened about three in the afternoon, and 

 the bird had, probably, taken up his quarters at daylight. 

 The moorings at Newlyn are from one hundred to two 

 hundred yards from the shore. There were great numbers 

 of this species off Mount's Bay at that time, and I soon 

 after had two more brought to me, which had been taken 

 by hooks. One of them is the light-coloured specimen in 

 your collection. The dark-coloured bird which you have 

 figured [P. griseus], was, I believe, obtained in a similar 

 manner about the same period in 1838. It is the only 

 example in that state which I met with during my residence 

 in Cornwall. The adult bird appears pretty regularly every 

 autumn, though not always in equal numbers. It has long 

 been in several collections at Plymouth, though it does not 

 appear to have been distinguished there from I\ aufilorum, 

 until Dr. Moore published his Catalogue of the ]3irds of 

 Devon. The latter is not a very common bird there, which 

 may have been the cause of such a mistake." 



