GREAT SHEARWATER. 419 



Upon the land it is said to walk with as much ease as a Duck ; and 

 when caught or alarmed to vomit a quantity of oil from its bill. Its food 

 is principally composed of small cuttlefish,, and Audubon found in the 

 stomachs of birds he dissected portions of fish, crabs, seaweeds, and oily 

 substances. Nothing is known of the nidification of the Great Shearwater, 

 but it probably does not differ in any important respect from the Manx 

 Shearwater. Eggs, said to be of this species, from Greenland are described 

 by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway as white, and varying in length from 2*88 

 to 2*75 inch, and in breadth from 2-0 to 1*85 inch. The Great Shearwater 

 sometimes accompanies the whalers and the fishing-boats, to pick up any 

 oflfal or scraps of blubber that may chance to be thrown overboard. It 

 is a voracious feeder, and is often captured by means of a baited hook. 

 Flocks of this bird are met with at sea, sometimes composed of as many 

 as a hundred birds, which often sit on the water until the ship closely 

 approaches them, when they rise, not en masse, but one or two at a time, 

 and fly forwards for some distance and again alight as before. Of the 

 habits of the young after leaving the nest nothing appears to be known. 



The Great Shearwater is about the same size as the Fulmar, but is 

 somewhat slenderer in form. There is no difterence in colour between the 

 sexes. The adult after the autumn moult has the general colour of the 

 upper parts dark brown, with a slight shade of slate-grey in newly-moulted 

 birds. All the small feathers below the nape have broad pale brown mar- 

 gins, and the outermost upper tail-coverts are tipped with white ; the 

 demarcation between the dark upper parts and the white underparts forms 

 an abrupt line from the gape across the upper ear-coverts ; the sides of 

 the breast, the flanks, the under tail-coverts, the centre of the belly, and 

 the marginal under wing-coverts are varied with brown; otherwise the 

 whole of the underparts are pure white. Bill brownish black ; legs and 

 feet olive, paler on the webs ; irides dark hazel. In summer all trace of 

 slate-grey on the upper parts fades into rusty brown. Young in first 

 plumage are not known to differ in any respect from adult birds. An 

 example in Hargitt's collection is moulting its primaries and some of the 

 feathers of the upper parts, and is dated " Greenland, June 28th/^ 



— •i-^^'-^S-*® S-^«g)X|^5^'S) (3) -i 



