THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 185 



Yarrell's figures j were obtained, but as yet I have 

 not heard of any in that stage having been taken " 

 (Zool. 1874. p. 4262). The description "dark" is 

 italicised by Gatcombe himself, and as the dark 

 bird figured by Yarrell proved eventually to be a 

 Sooty Shearwater, though at the time supposed to 

 be a young Greater Shearwater, it is clear that the 

 '' young " birds mentioned by Gatcombe were also, 

 specimens of the Sooty Shearwater. In justice to 

 Gatcombe, it may be well to point out that, in 

 regarding the Sooty Shearwater as the young of 

 the Greater Shearwater, he was only following the 

 then accepted belief of the most competent 

 authorities. His more recent information to 

 Mr. Dresser was of course made after the 

 distinction between the two species had become 

 generally known. 



MANX SHEARWATER.— P^#?^W5 angJorwn (Temm). 



An autumn and spring visitant, sometimes present 

 in large numbers off the South Coast of Devon, as 

 in March, 1877, when Gatcombe says that 

 " hundreds " were to be seen in the Channel off 

 Plymouth. " They breed on Lundy Island " writes 

 Dr. Moore in 1837 (Mag. Nat. Hist. p. 362) ; an 

 expression of opinion which has never been confirmed 

 though Mr. Howard Saunders in 1885, suggested 

 that, " a few may perhaps inhabit Lundy Island, in 

 the Bristol Channel, where the bird is well known 



