THE MANX SHEARWATER. 2 3 r 



prodigiously in the middle of the seventeenth century, should have passed away 

 almost unnoticed from our midst. The only record of its disappearance that 

 I have been able to discover, is furnished by a private letter written from Jardine 

 Hall on February 24th, 1836, by the late Sir William Jardine, who remarks : " I 

 had almost forgot the Isle of Man. It is nearly nine years since I was there, 

 we went as you observe to seek the Manks' Petrel, but were unsuccessful. The 

 people said that it had certainly left the Calf several years previously, and if any 

 number had been there we should not have missed them." But if the Calf of 

 Man no longer supplies a home to this interesting Shearwater, it is still gratify- 

 ing to remember that the bird has maintained its footing as a breeding species 

 in another locality which it occupied in the reign of Charles II. according to 

 Ray, whose information was that this Shearwater bred " not only on the Calf of 

 Man, but also on the Silly Islands." Mr. J. H. Gurney and Mr. B. Bidwell 

 both furnish us with particulars regarding the Shearwaters which inhabit Annet, 

 one of the Scilly group. The local name there applied to the Manx Shearwater 

 is " Crew." The birds honey-comb the ground of Annet with their burrows. 

 The soil which covers the rocks is composed of peat and sand, in which the 

 birds easily excavate their runs with their hooked bills (probably assisted also by 

 their feet). Mr. Gurney estimated the strength of the Annet colony in 1887, at 

 about two hundred pairs. Knormous flocks of this Shearwater, supposed to 

 include many thousands, have been observed in the vicinity of the Scilly group ; 

 but of the forty islets which bear herbage, Annet alone is known to afford an 

 asylum to the Manx Shearwater. It is probable that the great assemblages 

 of these birds which have attracted attention locally were composed of individuals 

 which had newly arrived from some other favourite haunt, such as Skomer Island 

 on the Pembrokeshire coast. Mr. R. M. Barrington, who has visited many island 

 haunts of this Shearwater, expresses the opinion that " Skomer is the greatest 

 British breeding-place of the Manx Shearwater, and for its size perhaps the 

 greatest in Europe" (" Zool." 1888, p. 371). 



The Skomer Shearwaters excavate their burrows all over the island, which 

 measures about four miles in circumference. The Puffin is generally considered 

 to be hostile to any species of Petrel. Indeed, the extermination of the Shear- 

 waters which formerly nested in the island of Mingalay has been accounted for 

 by an invasion of Puffins into their favourite haunts. But Mr. Barrington had a 

 different experience on Skomer, where these two species of sea-fowl are often 

 found in the same burrows. In addition to the other islands on the Welsh coast 

 which the Manx Shearwater frequents for breeding purposes, Air. T, A. Coward 

 discovered the presence of a small colony of Shearwaters on a steep, grassy cliff 



