453 



PROCELLARID^E. 



PROCELLARID^E. 



451 



which is situated a little above the level of the commissure of the 

 mandibles, has the iris of a red-brown. Total length 8 inches 6 line?. 



The Blue Petrel (Pelecanoidei Urinatrix). 



This species is found in great flocks along the coast of Peru, flying 

 moderately well in a precipitous manner, and skimming the sea; but 

 it prefers repose on the surface, and dives very frequently, like the 

 Grebes, doubtless for the purpose of capturing the small fish which 

 form its food. SI. Garnot thinks that it is intermediate between the 

 Petrels, whose bill and feet it very nearly possesses, and the Grebes, 

 whose port and habit of diving it has ; and hence he proposes for it 

 the name of the Grebe-Petrel. The parts between Sangallan and Lima 

 are the localities mentioned by M. Garnot. 



Puffintu, Ray (Thiellut, Gloger ; Thalataidroma, Sir. ; and Nectris, 

 Klug.) General characters those of the true Petrels, from which 

 Pvmnui is distinguished by the bill being longer; by the extremity 

 of the lower mandible, which follows the curvature of the upper ; and 

 by the tubular nostrils opening not by a common aperture, but by two 

 distinct orifices. 



P. Anglorum. This is the Procellaria Piiffinw of Brunnich and 

 Latham; Puffinus Arcticta of Faber; Der Mordische und Englische 

 Sturmtaucher of Brelim ; Pe'trel Manks of Temminck ; Pwffingen 

 Fanaw of the Welsh ; and Shearwater-Petrel, Hanks-Puffin, and JIanks 

 Shearwater, of the English. 



Summit of the head, nape, and all the upper parts of the body 

 generally, the wings, the tail, the thighs, and the borders of the lower 

 tail-coverts, of a lustrous black ; all the lower parts of a pure white ; 

 the black and white of the sides of the neck are in demi-tints which 

 produce a kind of crescents ; bill blackish-brown ; feet and toes brown, 

 membranes yellowish. Length nearly 13 inches. Male and female. 

 (Temminck.) 



Shearwater-Petrel (fuffima Anglorvm). 



In the fourth part of his ' Manuel,' M. Temminck observes that the 

 natural colour of the feet being badly indicated, he gives it from Graba. 

 The trenchant posterior border of the tarsi and the external toe are 

 deep brown ; the other parts of the tarsus are flesh-coloured, and the 

 membranes of a livid tint with brown streaks. Iris deep brown. 



Young of the Year. All the lower parts of a more or less deep ash- 

 colour. 



Willughby says : " At the south end of the Isle of Man lies a little 

 islet, divided from Man by a narrow channel called the Calf of Man, 

 on which are no habitations, but only a cottage or two lately built. 

 This islet is full of conies, which the Puffins, coming yearly, dislodge, 

 and build in their burroughs. They lay each but one egg before they 

 sit, like the Razor-Bill and Guillem, although it be the common per- 

 suasion that they lay two at a time, of which the one is always addle. 

 They feed their young ones wondrous fat. The old ones early in the 

 morning, at break of day, leave their nests and young, and the island 

 itself, and spend the whole day in fishing in the sea, never returning 

 or once setting foot on the island before evening twilight ; so that all 

 day the island is so quiet and still from all noise as if there were not a 

 bird about it. Whatever fish or other food they have gotten and 

 swallowed in the day-time, by the innate heat or proper ferment of 

 the stomach is (as they say) changed into a certain oily substance (or 

 rather chyle), a good part whereof in the night-time they vomit up 

 into the mouths of their young, which, being therewith nourished, 

 grow extraordinarily fat. When they are come to their full growth, 

 they who are intrusted by the lord of the island (the carl of Darby) draw 



them out of the couy-holes ; and that they may the more readily know 

 and keep an account of the number they take, they cut off one foot 

 and reserve it, which gave occasion to that fable that the Puffins are 

 single-footed. They usually sell them for about ninepence the dozen, 

 a very cheap rate. They say their flesh ia permitted to be eaten in 

 Lent, being for the taste so like to fish. We are told that they breed 

 not only on the Calf of Man, but also on the Scilly Islands. Notwith- 

 standing they are sold so cheap, yet some years there is thirty pounds 

 made of the young Puffins taken in the Calf of Man, whence may be 

 gathered what number of birds breed there." Speaking of the flesh, 

 the same author says, that from its extraordinary fatness, it is esteemed 

 unwholesome meat, unless it be well seasoned with salt. Pennant 

 states that they are salted and barrelled, and when they are boiled, 

 are eaten with potatoes. He further says that they quit the isle the 

 latter end of August or beginning of September ; and from accounts 

 then lately received from navigators, he observes that he has reason 

 to imagine that, like the Stormfinch, they are dispersed over the 

 whole Atlantic Ocean. He says it inhabits also the Orkney Isles, 

 where it makes its nest in holes in the earth near the shelves of the 

 rocks and headlands; it is, he says, called there the Lyre, and is 

 much valued, both on account of its serving as food and for its feathers. 

 The inhabitants, he adds, take and salt them in August for winter 

 provisions, when they boil them with cabbage ; they also take the old 

 ones in March ; but they are then poor, and not so well tasted as the 

 young, and he makes their first appearance to be in February. 



Mr. Selby says, on the authority of Sir William Jardine, that they 

 are no longer to be found on the Calf of Man. 



Mr. Gould remarks that during the summer months it is nearly as 

 abundant on the coasts of South NVales as it formerly was in the Calf 

 of Slan. Four dozens, apparently captured by hand, were sent to 

 Mr. Gould from this locality, with an intimation that he could have 

 as many more. It appeared from the information obtained by him, 

 that the birds visit these localities for the purpose of incubation 

 during the early part of the spring, when they resort to deserted 

 rabbit-burrows, crevices of the rocks, &c., wherein they deposit their 

 single white egg, and the birds then fall an easy prey to the fishermen 

 and others. He further says that they retire southwards, after the 

 breeding season, even beyond the Mediterranean, where, in consequence 

 of the increased temperature, they find a greater supply of food. The 

 coasts of Norway and the shores of the Baltic, he adds, although not 

 without the presence of this species, appear to be much less frequented 

 by it than our own island. Mr. Gould figures three species in his 

 great work (' Birds of Europe ') : the bird above described ; the Dusky 

 Shearwater (P. obscurus) ; and the Cinereous Shearwater (P. cinercus), 

 Stephens. 



P. cinerew, according to Mr. Darwin, is common to Cape Horn and 

 the coast of Peru, as well as Europe, and generally frequents the 

 inland sounds. " I do not think," adds Mr. Darwin, " I ever saw so 

 many birds of any other sort together, as I once saw of these behind 

 the island of Chiloe ; hundreds of thousands flew in an irregular line 

 for several hours in one direction. When part of the flock settled on 

 the water the surface was blackened, and a noise proceeded from 

 them, as of human beings talking in the distance. At this time 

 the water was in parts coloured by clouds of small Crustacea. At 

 Port Famine, every morning and evening, a long band of these birds 

 continued to fly with extreme rapidity up and down the centra' parts 

 of the channel. I opened the stomach of one (which I shot with 

 some difficulty, for they were very wary), and it contained a small 

 fish and seven good sized prawn-like crabs." ('Journal and Remarks.') 

 Mr. Gould describes a species, P. affinis, from New South Wales. 

 (' Zool. Proc.,' 1837.) It is closely allied to P. olscurus, but somewhat 

 smaller. 



Thalassidroma. Bill shorter than the head, much compressed in 

 front of the nasal sheath, with the tip of the upper mandible 

 suddenly curving and hooking downwards, and that of the lower one 

 slightly angulated and following the curve of the upper ; nostrils 

 contained 'in one tube or sheath, but showing two distinct orifices in 

 front. Wings long and acuminate, with the first quill shorter than 

 the third, the second being the longest. Tail square or slightly forked. 

 Legs having the tarsi rather long and slender, reticulated. Feet of 

 three toes united by a membrane ; hind toe represented by a small 

 straight dependent nail. (Gould.) 



The group geuerically sub-divided as above, or rather the most of 

 them, have been regarded as the indicators of storm and tempest. 

 Rapidly spurning the billows as they skim along the undulating waves, 

 they are ever on the watch for what the troubled water may offer to 

 them, and they congregate in the wake of the sea-going ship not so 

 much perhaps for shelter as for what is turned up from the furrow 

 ploughed by the keel. Mr. G. Bennett, during his voyage, observed 

 that the Cape Petrels, Albatrosses, and other birds followed the ship 

 during the whole of the night, reposing for a short period on the 

 water, but seldom remaining long on the waves. They usually alighted 

 for food, and soon resumed their flight. Marked birds were seen 

 about the ship for days together when the strong gales carried the 

 vessel at a rapid rate through the water. Cape Petrels and Albatrosses 

 were seen flying near the stern as late as midnight, and it was not 

 unusual to hear the twittering note of the Stormy Petrel (T. pelagica) 

 under the stern during the night. (' Wanderings in New South 



