182 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



GREAT SHEARWATER.— Pi#wy/s jnajor, Faber. 



A EAEE visitant, and one of great intereb>t, first 



brought to light as a Devonshire bird by Dr. Moore, 



who, having obtained Ey ton's History of rarer 



British Birds (1836), searched the Plymouth 



collections for specimens, and found that Drew and 



Pincombe had several specimens, which they had 



not distinguished from the former species [the Manx 



Shearwater], but merely considered as a larger 



specimen than usual (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837. p. 362). 



Bellamy, two years later, describes this species as 



"recognised in the Museums of this neighbourhood 



by Dr. Moore, it is rare " (Nat. Hist, of Devon, p. 



216). Mr. Banker records the capture of two 



Greater Shearwaters in Plymouth Sound, December 



11th, 1852 (Naturalist, 1853. p. 204), one of which 



was afterwards figured in Dresser's Birds of Europe. 



" The specimen I have figured,'' writes Mr. Dresser, 



" was obtained near Plymouth by Mr. J. Banker 



in December, 1852, and after his death purchased of 



his widow for me by my friend Mr. Gatcombe " 



(B. of Europe. VIII. p. 528). The other specimen 



as Mr. J. H. Gurney writes, was sent to the late 



Mr. Gurney, and is preserved in the Norwich 



Museum. In 1865, two more Greater Shearwaters 



were captured with hooks on the whiting ground 



outside Torbay, and one of these is in the collection of 



my informant, Mr. F. Fershouse ; the other is in the 



Torquay Museum. In 1867, apparently in the 



