648 LARIDJl. 



PUFFINUS. Generic Characters. Bill as long or longer than the head, 

 slender, upper mandible compressed and curved towards the point ; under 

 mandible also slender and curved at the point. Nostrils tubular, opening 

 by two separate orifices. Legs of moderate length, tarsi compressed 

 laterally ; toes three in front, rather long, webbed throughout ; hind toe 

 rudimentary. Wings long and pointed, the first quill-feather the longest. 





 THE first example of the Greater Shearwater obtained in 



this country was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society in July, 1832, by Mr. Arthur Strickland, of Boyn- 

 ton, near Burlington, in Yorkshire, who stated that it 

 was shot by Mr. George Marwood, jun., of Busby, in the 

 middle of August, 1828, on a very stormy day, at the 

 mouth of the Tees ; it was seen early in the morning, 

 sitting on the water like a duck, and was shot as it was 

 rising ; its manner of flight was consequently not noticed. 

 In 1833 Mr. Strickland very kindly gave me a coloured 

 drawing taken from his bird; this resembles the upper 

 figure in the woodcut here given. Since that period Mr. 

 Strickland has obtained a second specimen, much lighter 

 in colour on the under surface ; both these examples are 

 figured in the 19th part of the Birds of Europe, by Mr. 

 Gould, who remarks, " With respect to the specimens 

 forwarded by Mr. Strickland, which we have figured, we 

 have to observe, that these two birds, although agreeing 

 in their measurements with each other, differ slightly from 

 a specimen of Puffinus cinereus sent to us by M. Temminck 

 as an undoubted example of that species, Mr. Strickland's 

 specimens being less in all their measurements ; and could 

 we have discovered any difference in the markings of 

 their plumage, we should have had no hesitation in regard- 

 ing them as distinct ; as it is, we have here figured both 

 Mr. Strickland's birds as of one and the same species, but 

 with a mark of doubt as to their being examples of the 

 true Puffinus cinereus." 



To these two figures M. Temminck refers in the 4th 



