DUSKY SHEARWATER. 31 



Desertas with the birds, and now in the Salmon collection 

 of eggs at the Linnean Society, are 1'9 by 1*4 in. 



The following account of the Dusky Shearwater as ob- 

 served at the Bahamas is given by Dr. Henry Bryant in the 

 Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vii. 

 p. 132 :— 



" On making inquiries as to what sea-birds breed on the 

 kays, I was constantly told of a singular bird with a hooked 

 bill that only flew during the night, and was known by the 

 name of Pimlico ; it proved to be the present species. It 

 is very abundant, being found on all the uninhabited kays, 

 near the channel, which are not too frequently visited by 

 wreckers or fishermen. They breed in holes in the rock, as 

 described in the ' Naturalist in Bermuda.' Near Nassau, 

 at the Ship Channel kays, where I first met with them, 

 incubation had already commenced by the 24th of March ; 

 the nest, consisting of a few dry twigs, is always placed in 

 a hole or under a projecting portion of the rock, seldom 

 more than a foot from the surface, and never, as far as my 

 experience goes, out of reach of the hand ; on being caught 

 they make no noise and do not resist at all, unlike the 

 tropic-bird, which fights manfully, biting and screaming 

 with all its might. The egg does not seem to me to re- 

 semble an ordinary hen's egg ; the shell is much more 

 fragile and more highly polished. I broke a number of 

 them in endeavouring to remove the bird from the nest. 

 They vary a good deal in size and form, some of them being 

 quite rounded and others elongated ; three of them measured 

 as follows : one -059 by -036, another -052 by -033, and the 

 third "051 by '037 : both sexes incubate. Why these birds 

 and the Stormy Petrels never enter or leave their holes in 

 the day-time, is one of the mysteries of nature ; both of 

 them feeding or flying all day, are yet never seen in the 

 vicinity of their breeding-places before dark. When anchored 

 in the night-time near one of the kays on Avhich they breed, 

 their mournful note can be heard at all hours of the night ; 

 during the day they may be seen feeding in large flocks, 

 generally out of sight of land. They do not fly round 



