Audubon's shearwater. 275 



SOOTY SHEARWATER. 



BLACK HAGDON. 

 PUFFINUS STRICKLANDI. 



Char. Upper parts dark sooty brown ; under parts paler and varied 

 with grayish ; wings and tail dusky or blackish ; bill and legs dusky. 

 Length about 17 inches. 



Nest and Eggs. Unknown. 



The Black Hagdon of the fishermen — represented by the upper 

 figure of the illustration on page 272 — is a common bird on the 

 North Atlantic between Newfoundland and the Carolinas during 

 the autumn and winter months, though it appears to have escaped 

 the notice of Nuttall and his contemporaries. 



This bird is not known to breed on our shores, nor has any 

 breeding-place of the species been discovered, though it is very 

 probable that its nesting habits are similar to those of the Pacific 

 form, P. griseus, which our bird very closely resembles in appear- 

 ance, and with which it may be identical, as it is considered by 

 some British authorities. 



Nests of griseus discovered in the South Pacific were placed at 

 the end of a burrow, which ran horizontally three or four feet, and 

 then turned to the right or left. The single tgg, which was placed 

 on a rude cushion made of twigs and leaves, was of white color, 

 and measured on the average about 2.60 X 1.70. 



AUDUBON'S SHEARWATER. 



PUFFINUS AUDUBONI. 



Char. Upper parts sooty black or dusky, darker on wings and tail; 

 under parts white; bill lead blue; outside of legs black, inside and webs 

 yellowish. Length about 11 inches. 



Nest. In a crevice of a rock or amid loose fragments of stone, — a 

 slight affair of loosely arranged twigs. 



Egg- I ; white (similar in appearance to oval eggs of the domestic 

 fowl, but with thinner shell and more highly polished surface) ; average 

 size about 2.05 X 1.40. 



This species breeds in large numbers on the Bermuda and Ba- 

 hama Islands and southward, and is seen off the shores of the 

 mainland, occasionally wandering as far north as Long Island. It 



