SOOTY SHEARWATER. 19 



Edinb. v. pp. 34, 376), under the names of P. cinereus and 

 P. major, is really a Sooty Shearwater. As regards Ireland, 

 Mr. R. Warren has now no doubt that the bh-ds which he 

 saw off Cork Harbour in August, 1849, and recorded by 

 Thompson (B. Ireland, iii. p. 409) under the name of 

 P. major, were really Sooty Shearwaters ; Mr. A. G. More 

 has identified one shot many years ago off the coast of Kerry 

 (Zool. 1881, p. 334) ; and Mr. R. Lloyd Patterson has one, 

 which was recorded, like so many others, as a Great Shear- 

 water, shot in Belfast Lough on the 29th September, 1869. 

 The Sooty Shearwater visits the northern coasts of France, 

 and the Editor has examined, in the collection of Dr. Mar- 

 mottan, two examples taken off Crotoy, at the mouth of the 

 Somme, on the 25th of September, 1872, and the 9th of June, 

 1875, respectively. It has occurred more than once in the 

 Fseroe Islands (Zool. 1878, p. 154), and it appears to be 

 generally distributed over the Atlantic, being especially 

 common off the Bay of Fundy— where it is known as the 

 ' Black Hagdon ' — Labrador, and Newfoundland, ranging 

 for some distance up the coast of Greenland. These are, 

 however, by no means the limits of its distribution, for Mr. 

 Dresser states (B. of Europe, viii. p. 524) that Mr. Salviu 

 and he are agreed as to the identity of examples from Cali- 

 fornia, ChiH, the Cape of Good Hope, Austraha, and New 

 Zealand. It is from the latter place that we derive our know- 

 ledge of its nidification, the species having been found by Mr. 

 Travers to be common all round the coasts of the Chatham 

 group (Tr. New Zeal. Inst. v. p. 220). He states that it 

 burrows in peaty ground horizontally for three or four feet, 

 and then turning slightly to the right or left, a rude nest of 

 twigs and leaves being formed at the extremity of the hole. 

 In this a single egg is laid, which Mr. Buller describes as 

 white stained with reddish-brown, and measuring 3'25 by 

 2 in.* The male assists in the work of incubation, and the 

 young birds, which are very fat, are esteemed a delicacy by 



* Tlie egg described l3y Mr. Buller is that of P. tristris, wbicla is identified by 

 Messrs. Salvia and Dresser with this species. It seems very large, eonsiderino- 

 that the bird is rather smaller than P. kulili, whose egg averages 2 '6 by 1'7. 



