662 LARID^E. 



their legs and feet, run as it were on the water, and at 

 length alight on the sea, where they swim with as much 

 ease as Ducks, and dive freely, at times passing several 

 feet under the surface in pursuit of fishes, which are 

 seized with great agility. 9 I heard no sound or note from 

 any of them, although many came within twenty yards of 

 the ship, an d alighted there. Whenever an individual settled 

 in a spot, many others flew up directly and joined it." 

 He found it abundant in the month of June, in the Gulf 

 of Mexico and off the coast eastward to Georgia, some of 

 them wandering from Cape Florida as far north as Sandy 

 Hook and Long Island. Audubon's friend, Thomas 

 Nuttall, in his Manual of the Ornithology of the United 

 States and of Canada, among other localities already 

 quoted, mentions the north-west coast of America. It is 

 also found at Bermuda. 



Captain Cook met with this species at Christmas Island, 

 only two degrees north of the equator, and about 158 

 W. longitude. This island was so named by Cook, who 

 landed there on Christmas-day, in 1777. 



Having carefully examined specimens of this bird from 

 Australia, others from Madeira, and these with the re- 

 cently-acquired example from Valentia Harbour, I am 

 induced to consider them but as one species ; and that 

 the Puffinus obscurus of Mr. Gould's Birds of Europe, 

 and the Puffinus assimilis of his Birds of Australia, are, 

 accordingly, identical. Several examples of equally ex- 

 tensive geographical range are well known. Of the Puf- 

 finus assimilis Mr. Gould observes : " All the specimens 

 of this species that I have seen were procured on Norfolk 

 Island, where it is said to breed ; consequently the seas 

 washing the eastern shores of Australia may be considered 

 its native habitat : it is evidently the representative of the 

 Puffinus olscurus of Europe, which it so much resembles, 



