GREATER SHEARWATER. 503 



mandible also slender and curved at the point. Nostrils tubular, opening by 

 two separate orifices. Legs of moderate length, tarsi compressed laterally ; 

 toes three in front, rather long, webbed throughout ; hind toe rudimentary. 

 Wings long and pointed, the first quill- feather the longest. 



The first example of the Greater Shearwater obtained in 

 this country was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society in July, 1832, by Mr. Arthur Strickland, of Boyn- 

 ton, near Burlington, in Yorkshire, who stated that it was 

 shot by Mr. George Marwood, jun., of Busby, in the middle 

 of August, 1828, on a very stormy day, at the mouth of the 

 Tees ; it was seen early in the morning, sitting on the water 

 like a duck, and was shot as it was rising ; its manner of 

 flight was consequently not noticed. In 1833 Mr. Strick- 

 land very kindly gave me a coloured drawing taken from his 

 bird ; this resembles the upper figure in the woodcut here 

 given. Since that period Mr. Strickland has obtained a 

 second specimen, apparently in the adult plumage, being 

 much lighter in colour on the under surface ; both these ex- 

 amples are figured in the 19th part of the Birds of Europe, 

 by Mr. Gould, who remarks, "With respect to the specimens 

 forwarded by Mr. Strickland, which we have figured, we have 

 to observe, that these two birds, although agreeing in their 

 measurements with each other, differ slightly from a specimen 

 of Puffi.nus cinereus sent to us by M. Temminck as an un- 

 doubted example of that species, Mr. Strickland's specimens 

 being less in all their measurements ; and could we have dis- 

 covered any difference in the markings of their plumage, we 

 should have had no hesitation in regarding them as distinct ; 

 as it is, we have here figured both Mr. Strickland's birds as 

 of one and the same species, but with a mark of doubt as to 

 their being examples of the true Puffinus cinereus. 



To these two figures M. Temminck refers in the 4th part 

 of his Manual, p. 507, under the name of Puffinus major 

 of Faber, and considers the lighter-coloured bird as a male, 



