VOL. IX.] BIUDS NEW TO BRITISH LIST. 201 



who has examined it, informs me that it is an examjjle of 

 the North African form {GiJnanthe leucura syenitica). 



Thomas Parkin. 



This bird, which Mr. J. B. Nichols has kindly lent me for 

 examination, is a very typical example of the North African 

 race of Black Wheatear {QSnanthe hucura syrnitica (Heuglin)). 

 On comparison with the male of the two first British speci- 

 mens, which were typical European birds {CE. I. leucura), the 

 differences are very marked. The North African bird is 

 very decidedly more brownish-black, and the difference in 

 the tips of the tail-feathers of the two birds is clearly shown 

 in the accompanying reproduction of a photograph. It 

 will be noted that in the Eiu-opean bird the black tips of 

 the tail-feathers are narrower (and in this specimen are 

 divided with Avhite, though this is not always so), while in 

 the North African form they are broader and unbroken. 



In the females of the two forms the difference in coloration 

 is better marked than in the males. H. F. Witherby. 



CAPE VERDE LITTLE SHEARWATER IN SUSSEX. 



A female Little Shearwater was picked up at Pevensey, 

 Sussex, on December 4th, 1914. 



Another Little Shearwater (also a female on dissection) 

 was caught at West St. Leonards, Sussex, on January 2nd, 

 1915, and kept alive for two days. Both birds were examined 

 in the flesh at the time by Mr. H. W. Ford-Lindsay. Sub- 

 sequently they came into my possession, and noticing that 

 they were different to other Little Shearwaters in my collection, 

 I sent them to Mr. Witherby for examination, and he pro- 

 nounces them to be of the form inhabiting the Cape Verde 

 Islands {Pu/pnus assimilis boydi). J. B. Nichols. 



Since the publication of our Hand-List, Mr. G. M. Mathews 

 has shown {Birds of Australia, Vol. II., Part 1, pp. 63 and 70) 

 that the Little Shearwater inhabiting the Cape Verde Islands 

 is distinct from that inhabiting the other East Atlantic Islands 

 and has named it Pufflnus Iherminieri boydi after the late 

 Boyd Alexander, who obtained a series of specimens in the 

 Cape Verde Islands and noted that they were different. 



This being so, it would be better perhaps to alter the English 

 name of Puffi.nus assimilis godmani, which has hitherto been 

 called the Little Dusky Shearwater, to the Madeiran Little 

 Shearwater, and to call the new bird the Cape Verde Little 

 Shearwater. 



