SOOTY SHEARWATER 551 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial.Head and back of neck, 
ash-brown ; neck, white, interspersed with a few spots of 
light brown; back, scapulars, and wings, ash-brown, the 
edges of the feathers being paler; upper tail-coverts, spotted 
brown and white; primaries and _ tail-feathers, chiefly 
blackish-brown ; breast, white; abdomen, white, with 
brownish feathers interspersed about its middle and on the 
thighs ; under tail-coverts, sooty-brown. 
“Adult female nuptial.—Similar to the male plumage. 
Adult winter, male and female.—Similar to the nuptial 
plumage. 
Immature, male and female. — Resembles the adult 
plumage. 
Beak. Dark brown. 
Feet. Pinkish-white. 
IripEs. Dark brown. 
AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 
TOTAL LENGTH ae eee alia 
WING ve Ae aes Pe Oe + Se 
BEAK ee Seo, wee * 
TARSO-METATARSUS pO eae 
Allied Species and Representative Forms. — P. kuhli, 
identical with P. borealis of Cory, is a closely allied species 
which is resident on many of the islands off the west coast 
of Africa. It visits the western coast of France and Spain, 
and is plentiful in the Mediterranean. The back and wings 
are much paler than in Puffinus gravis ; the beak is yellow 
in colour and deeper in shape (Saunders). 
SOOTY SHEARWATER. Pujfinus griseus (J. F. Gmelin). 
Coloured Figures.—Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. viii, pl. 616, 
fig. 1; Lilford, ‘ Coloured Figures,’ vol. vi, pl. 59. 
The Sooty Shearwater is a rarer visitor to British seas 
than the last species, from which it may readily be distin- 
euished by its uniformly dark colour and smaller size. 
Formerly it was regarded by some observers as the 
immature or a dark form of that bird. 
In England it has been obtained off the coasts of the 
