PUFFINUS. 85 



Subfamily PUFFININ^E. 

 Genus PUFFINUS Brisson, 1760. 



Nasal tube obliquely truncate, its partition thick. 



75. PUFFINUS LEUCOMELAS Temminck. 

 SIEBOLD'S SHEARWATER. 



Puffinus leucomelas TEMMINCK, PI. Col. (1836), pi. 587; RIDGWAY, Man. 

 North Am. Bds. (1887), 62; SALVIN, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 

 25, 370; SHARPE, Hand-List (1899), 1, 123; MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, 

 Hand-List (1906), 19. 



Luzon (Cuming). Japan and Korea south to Australia. 



"Adult male. Upper surface brown, feathers of body and wings with 

 paler dusky edges ; anterior portion of crown, forehead, sides of head, and 

 neck white, each feather with a dark disk, which is narrow on the forehead 

 and sides of the head and neck, giving a streaked appearance; entire 

 under surface white; under wing-coverts white, interior ones with dark 

 shafts, those near the edge of wing with dark disks ; axillars pure white ; 

 tail brown, the inner webs of the lateral rectrices near the base white; 

 primaries black throughout. Bill horn-color; feet flesh-color, the outer 

 toe a little darker. Length, about 480 ; wing, 330 ; outer rectrices, 102 ; 

 central rectrices, 142. 



"Female. Similar to the male."' (Salvin.) 



"Lower parts white; top and sides of head white, spotted and streaked 

 with blackish. Wing, 286 to 318; tail, 149 (graduated for about 46) ; 

 culmen, 47; tarsus, 47; middle toe with claw, 33." (Ridgway.) 



The only record of this species for the Philippine Islands is based on 

 the specimen collected by Cuming. 



Order LATtlFOKMES. 



TERNS AND GULLS. 



Nostrils pervious, the opening linear or oval; wings long, strong, and 

 pointed; first primary longest; legs and feet moderate; hind toe small 

 and elevated ; anterior toes fully webbed. Plumage of the adult simple in 

 color, being white, black, and pearl-gray, rarely brown, usually in large 

 areas. Young gray or mottled, very different in color from the adult. 

 Usually found in flocks and never far from water. Eggs two to four, 

 highly colored ; nests usually on the ground or on cliffs ; young downy at 

 birth and fed in the nest for some time.* 



* As the Bureau of Science collection contains very few specimens belonging 

 to the order Lariformes and as these are winter specimens only, the greater 

 part of the specific descriptions of Philippine gulls and terns are copied from 

 Saunders's excellent work, in volume 25 of the Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum. 



