PROCELLAKIID^ PUFFINUS 471 



to the Fijis, Phoenix Island and St. Ambrose in the Pacific, and to 

 the Salvages and Madeira in the Atlantic. 



It nests on the Fiji, Kermadec and St. Ambrose Islands in the 

 Pacific and on the Desertas near Madeira, the Great Salvages 

 between Madeira and the Canaries, the Cape Verd Islands and 

 Gough Island in the Atlantic. 



In the South African Museum there is a single mounted 

 specimen obtained by Mr. Layard during his voyage in H.M.S. 

 " Castor " in the South Atlantic. This is the only record, so far as 

 I am aware, of its occurrence within our limits. 





787. Puffinus griseus. Sooty Shearwater. 



Procellaria grisea, Gmel Syst. Nat. i, p. 564 (1788). 



? Puffinus cinereus, Smith, Iliustr. Zool. S. Afr. Aves, pi. 56 (1840). 



Puffinus griseus, Dresser, B. Eur. viii, p. 523, pi. 616 ; Swinburne, 

 P. E. Pliys. Soc. Edin. ix, p. 197 (1886) ; Salvin, Cat. B. M. xxv, 

 p. 386 (1896) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 167 (1896) ; Reichenoiv, Vog. 

 Afr. i, p. 29 (1900). 



Description. Adult. General colour sooty- brown, darker on the 

 head, lower back, wings and tail ; feathers of the back indistinctly 

 edged with paler ; greater coverts and under surface greyer and 

 paler ; under wing-coverts greyish-white with darker shafts. 



Bill horn ; feet dark hazel. 



Length about 18-0; wing 12-0; tail, central feathers 3-5, lateral 

 feathers 2-7 ; bill 2-1 ; tarsus 2-4 ; middle toe 2-6. 



Sexes .alike. 



Distribution. The Sooty Shearwater has a very wide range, 

 being found throughout the seas of both Hemispheres from the 

 Faroe Islands of the North Atlantic and the Kurile Isles of the 

 North Pacific, southwards to the Straits of Magellan and the New 

 Zealand seas. 



Its breeding haunts appear to be confined to the Southern 

 Hemisphere, where it has been observed nesting in the Chatham 

 Islands by Mr. Travers, and on other islands off the New Zealand 

 coast. Owing to the idea for many years prevalent that this bird 

 was either a dark form or a young bird of the Greater Shearwater, 

 a certain amount of confusion has .arisen in regard to it. There 

 is, however, an example in the British Museum from South Africa, 

 and it seems probable that the bird figured by Smith, on plate 56 

 of his work, is referable to the present species. 



