428 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



measures 3"25 by 2*0 inch (2^ by If is more probable). On the Chatham 

 Islands it is said (Travers, Trans. N. Zealand Inst. v. p. 220) to be common 

 all round the coasts, and to burrow in peaty ground, forming a rude nest 

 of twigs and dead leaves at the extremity of the hole. " The old birds roost 

 on shore, the noise they make during the whole night being absolutely 

 frightful.^' 



The Sooty Shearwater is intermediate in size between the Great Shear- 

 water and the Manx Shearwater. There is no difference in the colour of 

 the sexes of this species. After the autumn moult the adult bird has the 

 general colour of the upper parts blackish brown, most of the small feathers 

 having slightly paler margins. The general colour of the underparts is an 

 almost uniform greyish brown, darkest on the flanks, palest on the chin 

 and throat, but the under wing-coverts are white, with dark shafts, and 

 are slightly mottled with brown. Bill dark brown ; legs and feet brown, 

 paler on the webs; irides dark hazel. Young in first plumage appear to 

 be absolutely unknown. 



Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway regard the Atlantic Sooty Shearwaters as 

 specifically distinct from those from the Pacific under the name oiPuffinm 

 stricMandi. Examples of the latter in the collection of Salvin and Godman 

 do not appear to difier from a British-killed example in the same collection, 

 so that it seems premature to recognize even a subspecifie difference between 

 them. 



