PROCELLARIID.E. 



THE SOOTY SHEARWATER. 

 PuFFiNus GRiSEUS (J. F. Gmclin). 



The Sooty Shearwater — represented by the upper figure in the 

 woodcut on p. 715 — was until recently considered to be the young 

 of the Great Shearwater, and there is consequently great difficulty 

 in saying to which of these species many of the earlier records 

 refer. Identified examples have been obtained— in our summer 

 and autumn — at North Berwick in Scotland and along the east coast 

 of England, especially off Yorkshire ; while several have been 

 taken in the Channel as far west as Cornwall, though the bird is 

 evidently less abundant there than its larger congener. In Ireland 

 specimens have been secured on the coast of Kerry and in Belfast 

 Lough, while others have been observed. 



This species visits the northern coasts of France, and has oc- 

 curred more than once in the Faroes. It is generally distributed 

 over the North Atlantic, and is well known as the ' Black Hagdon ' 

 on the North American fishing-banks, where, however, Capt. 

 Collins says it is far less plentiful than the Great Shearwater. Like 

 the latter, it has its breeding-haunts in the southern hemisphere, 

 and it is from the Chatham group and New Zealand that we 

 derive our imperfect knowledge of its nidification ; while, in the 

 Pacific, it ranges northward to California and the Kuril Islands 

 during the summer. 



According to the experience of Mr. Travers in the Chatham 

 Islands, this species makes a burrow in peaty ground— running 

 horizontally for about three or four feet and then turning to the 

 right or left ; while a slight nest of twigs and leaves at the extremity 

 serves as a receptacle for the single white egg. The dimensions of 

 the latter appear to be about 2-6 by 17 in., but there are several 

 closely-allied Petrels which breed in those parts, and it is not yet 

 quite certain that the veritable egg of this species has been 

 measured, though numbers must have been taken. The male 

 assists in the work of incubation, and the young birds, which are 

 very fat, are esteemed a delicacy by the Maories, who hold them 

 over their mouths in order to swallow the oily matter which is dis- 



