SOOTY SHEARWATER.— MANX SHEARWATER. 2ft3 



have lately mot with a lady who had spent a summer in 

 Madeira, and informed me tliat a bird, which she thought 

 from my specimens was the Sooty Shearwater, was an occa- 

 sional visitor to that island, flying about at night uttering 

 most fearful screams, Avhich were considered by the natives 

 as an omen of evil, especially if heard by a sick person. The 

 lady also said that she had been told that the bird used its 

 hooked bill in the manner of a Parrot while climbing about 

 the rocks, and that it bred in the Desertas. 



MANX SHEARWATER. 



Puffinus anglorum. 



This species occurs on our coast occasionally, but cannot be 

 called common. In February 1854 I heard from Mr. Den- 

 nis that four adult Manx Shearwaters were seen in Seaford 

 Bay. Mr. Knox merely states that it is an unusual and acci- 

 dental visitor to this part of the English Channel. It breeds 

 in the Scilly Isles, on the Calf of Man, many of the Hebrides, 

 and the Orkneys, and at St. Kilda it is one of the commonest 

 birds. Its food is principally composed of small cuttlefish, 

 mollusks, and scraps of offal found floating in the sea. It 

 also eats great quantities of sorrel, and the remains of sea- 

 weed have been found in its interior. It burrows in the 

 ground like the Puffin, the holes being sometimes very 

 long, and often under large masses of rock ; the nests are 

 merely little bunches of dried grass. Its note may be expressed 

 as " Kitty-coo-roo,^^ and at night it is very garrulous. 



Mr. Parkin, in his p. n., states that a fine specimen was 

 obtained at Bexhill, August 18th, 1882. Mr. Booth writes 

 that the flight of this bird when viewed for the first time is 

 sure to attract attention, as it glides with an undulating 



