GREAT SHEARWATER. 15 



to the edge no attempt to fly was made, and it fell heavily 

 to the ground. It rarely stirred at all during the day, hut 

 kept itself as much concealed as possible, and if it could not 

 hide its body, would endeavour to conceal its head. Th0 

 fishermen sometimes keep them for weeks about their houses, 

 and in some instances they have become tame ; they never 

 attempt to fly. It does not appear that the Manks Shear- 

 water is ever seen, nor could I ascertain that a Greater 

 Shearwater was ever shot, but always taken with a hook. 

 They are commonly known by the name of Hagdoivns." It 

 is probable, from what is known of its geographical distri- 

 bution, that it is of not unfrequent occurrence off the southern 

 and western coasts. Examples obtained ofi" the coast of 

 Kerry are in the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin ; and 

 Major Feilden states that on the 19th of October, 1876, 

 when returning from the Arctic Expedition in H.M.S. 

 ' Alert,' in lat. 55° W N., long. 35° 38' W., a thousand 

 miles from Cape Clear, he came upon birds of this species, 

 which accompanied the ship across the Atlantic until within 

 a few miles of the Skelligs and the coast of Kerry. Sir K. 

 Payne-Gallwey thinks there is some chance that it may be 

 found breeding on the outlying Blasquets, where, on the 

 occasion of his visit in 1881, an old cliif-climber remarked, 

 unprompted, that sometimes when searching for the Manx 

 Shearwater, he had come upon a few birds of about double 

 the size (Fowler in Ireland, p. 289). 



In the Faeroes and in Iceland the Great Shearwater is rare ; 

 but it is marked by Prof. Reinhardt as breeding in Green- 

 land, where, according to Holboll, large numbers are found 

 from the southern point of the country to 65° 30^ N. lat. It 

 is abundant at times off Newfoundland. In the Azores it 

 is replaced by Pitffinus kuhli, a species which visits the 

 western coasts of France and the Iberian Peninsula, and 

 which is abundant in the Mediterranean. The range of the 

 Great Shearwater in America extends as far south as Florida, 

 and specimens referred to this species have been obtained 

 at Tierra del Fuego, and also near the Cape of Good Hope. 



Nothing definite is known respecting the nidification of 



