SHEARWATERS 67 



The Shearwaters are birds of the open sea and are especially 

 common among the fishing fleet at the banks. Only rarely 

 are they seen near our coast. The breeding habits of this 

 species are unknown, and the identification of the egg described 

 by Dr. Brewer from South Greenland is in my opinion more 

 than doubtful. The birds are said to congregate about fishing 

 vessels and feed on almost any kind of guts and offal which may 

 be thrown overboard, but their natural diet is doubtless fish. 



94. Ptiffimts fuligmosiis Strickland. Sooty Shearwater; 

 Black Hagdon. 



Plumage : below uniform sooty gray ; above sooty brownish black ; under 

 wing coverts gray, mottled with white and gray ; bill dark. Wing 11.00 to 

 12.00; culmen 1.68; tarsus 2.10. 



Geog. Dist. — Atlantic Ocean, appearing as a summer visitor on the Ameri- 

 can coast from South Carolina northward ; breeding range open to doubt. 



County Records — Cumberland ; rarely seen except long distances from 

 land, there seemingly common, (Brown, C. B. P. p. 35). Sagadahoc; one 

 caught in a trawl about six miles from Seguin Island, May 1901, now in my 

 collection, (Spinney). Washington; rare at sea, (Boardman). 



Like the preceding species a bird of the fishing banks, where 



it is reported as common in summer. The nest and eggs 



would seem either rare or unknown. The A. O. U. Check-list 



p. 33, says "Breeding in southern hemisphere". Chapman says 



"Nest and eggs unknown". Ridgway does not describe the 



eggs. The fifth edition of Davie's Nests and Eggs of N. A. 



Birds states that "It breeds in immense colonies on the islands 



of the sea in the far north. It burrows in the ground to the 



extent of several feet and deposits a single white egg. The 



average size of the egg is 2.58 x 1 .78." The author does not 



vouch for any of these statements, the reader may take his choice. 



Subfamily FULMARIN.E. 

 Genus DAPTION Stephens. 



102. Daption capensis (Linn.). Pintado Petrel; Cape 

 Pigeon ; Damier. 



Plumage : above chiefly plumbeous except as noted hereafter ; rump, upper 

 tail coverts, basal two-thirds of tail, most of scapulars and secondaries and 



