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be found breeding at the Bahamas ; but although I looked for it 

 carefully, and inquired about it of all persons likely to have any 

 information on the subject, I could not ascertain that it was ever 

 seen on the kays, though occasionally one or two would follow a 

 vessel into soundings. On my return, in the Gulf Stream, I first 

 saw this bird about sixty miles north of Abaco, and by the next 

 day they had become very numerous. I caught about twenty by 

 allowing a thread to fly astern in a way well known to sailors. I 

 saw no other species of stormy petrel. 



Puffinus obscurus. 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 fish- 

 ermen. 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 com- 

 menced 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 resemble an ordi- 

 nary hen's egg ; the shell is much more fragile and more highly 

 polished. I broke a number of them in endeavoring to remove 

 the bird from the nest. They vary a good deal both 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 daytime, is one of the mysteries of nature ; both 

 of them feeding and 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 w'hich 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 much, but remain most of 



