770 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
flier, and cleaves the air with astonishing velocity—now rising 
suddenly, then abruptly precipitating itself to the very crest of 
the foaming waves, and skimming gracefully over the intervening 
troughs—its varied evolutions thus affording to the voyager a 
constant object of never-ceasing interest.” 
Above, bluish ash-coloured ; beneath white; space before the eye, 
eyebrow, and lower eyelids, white; lesser wing-coverts, tips of the 
scapulars, webs of the primaries, the outer vanes of the four external 
quill-feathers, and the tip of the tail, dull reddish-brown; base of 
tail cinereous; bill greenish-black; upper mandible at the point, 
yellow-brown ; lower mandible livid ; feet reddish-brown ; eyes 
black-brown. Length, 10” 9”; wing, 7” 6”; tail, 4”. 
Fig. Smith, Ill. Zool. 8. Afr. Aves, pl. 54. 
750. Purrinus e@riseus (Gm.). Sooty Shearwater. 
The following description by Sir A. Smith is taken from a young 
specimen. He states that they are common in the Cape seas; but 
we never met with them. Mr. J. Verreaux confirms what Sir A. 
Smith says, but they seem to have entirely disappeared now (1871). 
Sir A. Smith’s specimens are in the British Museum. Mr. Andersson 
writes: ‘This species is common in the Cape seas; and I have 
reason to think that it is not unfrequently met with off the coast to 
considerably north of the Orange River. It is generally observed 
in the Cape seas from May till September, when it retires to its 
breeding-grounds.” 
Above fuscous, tinged with yellowish-brown ; below cinereous- 
brown; wing and tail-feathers, and lower tail-coverts, brown; bill 
livid brown ; at the tip, yellowish-brown; front of the tarsi yellow, 
brown behind, and externally reddish-brown; eyes brown. Length, 
17"; wing, 11" 9%; tail, 8” 10”, 
Fig. Smith, Ill. Zool. 8. Afr. Aves, pl. 56. 
751. Drtomeppa rexuans, L. Wandering Albatross. 
The “ Cape Sheep,” as it is called, is a well-known inhabitant of our 
seas, and though it seldom ventures into the bays, it is sometimes 
caught by the fishermen between Robben Island and the mainland, 
together with the next species. It retires from our shores about 
November, and breeds on the Island of Tristan d’Acunha, An egg 
