PROCELLARIID^. 



721 



"'fi'S^i 



THE DUSKY SHEARWATER. 



PuFFiNUS OBSCURUS (J. F. Gmelin). 



The subject of our illustration was brought to Yarrell by Mr. B. 

 Blackburn of Valentia Harbour in co. Kerry, who afterwards sent a 

 note to the effect that the bird flew on board a small sloop in that 

 vicinity late in the evening of May nth 1S53. This specimen was 

 exhibited at a meeting of the Linnean Society in the following June. 

 In ' The Zoologist ' for 1S58 the late Mr. H. Stevenson stated that he 

 had examined a second example, which was found dead on the Ear- 

 sham estate near Bungay in Suffolk, about April loth of the above 

 year ; and this, after being lost to sight for some time, was redis- 

 covered through his investigations, aided by those of Messrs. J. H. 

 Gurney jun. and Hartcup ; it was exhibited by Mr. Osbert Salvin, 

 at a meeting of the Zoological Society on May i6th 1882. Accord- 

 ing to the original account, the bird had probably been driven inland 

 by a gale and had come in contact with a tree, since it had a wound 

 on one side of the head as if from a violent blow. 



This small Shearwater frequents the Canaries, Madeira, and per- 

 haps the Azores ; its nearest breeding-place to our shores being on 

 the Desertas, where Mr. E. Vernon Harcourt — and subsequently 

 Mr. Hurrell — obtained birds and eggs. Crossing the Atlantic, we 

 trace the species to the Bermudas, the Bahamas and Barbadoes, in 

 the last of which Col. Feilden recently found it nesting. On the first, 

 however, where it was formerly very abundant and known as the 

 ' Cahow,' Capt. S. G. Reid says that it has now almost ceased to breed ; 



3 K 



