660 LARID/E. 



suffered itself to be handled without exhibiting alarm ; 

 and though apparently strong and vigorous, manifested 

 quite an Oriental resignation to its fate." 



The Puffinus obscurus, or Dusky Petrel, is included by 

 the late William MacgiJJivray in his Manual of British 

 Ornithology (part ii. "Water Birds, p. 263), with the fol- 

 lowing remark : " This species belongs to the southern 

 and tropical regions of the globe, although individuals 

 have sometimes been found far north." Reference is also 

 made to his History of British Birds, vol. v., but no page 

 is given. The fifth volume of this latter work was not 

 published until ten years after the publication of the 

 Manual, and does not contain any notice of this bird. 



The Dusky Petrel of Latham (Syn.) and Pennant (Arct. 

 Zool.), since they give it a length of thirteen inches, is not 

 the Puffinus obscurus of more modern authors ; and is proba- 

 bly the Manks Petrel (Puffinus Anylorurri) of Ray : but 

 Latham, in his Synopsis (vol. vi. p. 417), refers to a 

 Petrel without a name, measuring less by two inches in 

 length, in the Leverian Museum, said to have come from 

 King George's Sound ; and mentions also that it inhabits 

 Christmas Island. The Puffinus obscurus measures eleven 

 inches in its whole length, and six and three-quarters from 

 the bend of the wing to the end of the longest quill-feather. 

 Six specimens examined gave the same results. 



M. Temminck says, it is never found in the north. 



Professor Savi includes this species in his Ornitologia 

 Toscana (vol. iii. p. 40), from an example obtained in 

 Piedmont ; and it has a place also in the Faune Fran9aise 

 (p. 405), from specimens killed in Brittany and Picardy. 



It is therefore included in the Birds of Europe by M. 

 Temminck, Mr. Gould, M. Deglarid, and Prince Charles 

 Lucien Bonaparte ; the author of the first work observing 

 that " it is rare in the Mediterranean, but common on the 



