Birds of Teneriffe. 8 1 



return once more to England ! My experience of the Pro- 

 cellariidse is small, and I never imagined they were to be 

 found in such numbers and to be so easily obtained. I do not 

 think there were more than the two species I have mentioned. 

 We inspected them as carefully as the violent tossings of the 

 boat would allow^ through my binoculars, and both Major 

 Loyd (a good observer) and myself came to this conclusion. 

 Juan Baeza has recently sent me the egg of a large Shear- 

 water, but with no information as to where it was obtained. 

 I presume it comes from Teneriffe itself, and is the egg of 

 -f~ P. kuhli. It measures 2*83 by 1*97 inches, being somewhat 

 larger than eggs of this bird in my collection from the island 

 of Filfla, near Malta. 



Gomez has a specimen of the Dusky Shearwater (Puffinua 

 obscurus) in his museum, and he kindly gave me one in the 

 flesh, picked up on the shore at Orotava on the loth March. 

 It undoubtedly breeds in the western detached islets. I 

 cannot understand why this bird is omitted by Mr. Dresser 

 from the European list. It has been obtained within British 

 limits, and surely the numbers occurring and breeding in the 

 Atlantic islands — Madeira, the Desertas, Porto Santo, the 

 Canaries, &c. — would entitle it to be regarded as something 

 more than a straggler from the American coasts. 



A boy brought me a live example of an interesting little 

 Petrel, Oceanites marinus, Lath., on the 20th March. It -+- 

 had been knocked over with a fishing-rod the previous even- 

 ing. I was quite puzzled by its appearance, and could not 

 determine its species ; but ray friend Capt. G. E. Shelley, 

 who most kindly looked over my birds for me, identified it 

 on my return home. He informed me that it has been ob- 

 tained once or twice in the Canarian archipelago, and is an 

 African species, though (somewhat unaccountably) not re- 

 corded from the west coast of that continent, where, however, 

 it doubtless occurs. 



While on the subject of these Shearwaters, I cannot help 

 mentioning a very interesting fact wdth respect to the para- 

 sites infesting the specimens I obtained. A keen micro- 

 scopist, Mr. R. E. Crickitt, was staying at our hotel iu 



SKR. \. V(»L. VI. G 



