2 35 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



Family PUFFINIDsE. Subfamily PUFF ININsE. 



GOULD'S LITTLE SHEARWATER. 



Puffinus assiini!is (GOULD.) 



THIS Sliearwater was formerly supposed to be peculiar to tlie seas of Australia 

 and New Zealand, but is now known to nest at the Salvage Islands, Madeira, 

 Deserta Grande, Porto Santo. It was added to the British list in 1853, when a 

 single example boarded a sloop off Valentia, Ireland, on May nth. Mr. R. 

 Blackburn has presented this bird to the Dublin Museum. Gould's Little Shear- 

 Avater is closely related to the Dusky Shearwater, but has the slaty black of the 

 npper surface of a bluer tint than Puffinus obscurus ; the white of the under surface 

 extends over the lower part of the lores, and close to the orbit of the eye ; the 

 dividing line on the sides of the neck being more definite than in Puffinus obscurus ; 

 the under tail-coverts are pure white, instead of being largely mixed with dark 

 sooty brown as in the Dusky Shearwater. It is also smaller, measuring about 

 io - 5 inches in length; wing 7*4; bill i'4. 



Family- -PUFFINID/E. Subfamily -PUFFlNINsE. 



SOOTY SHEARWATER. 



Pujjlnus griseus ( 



THIS Shearwater ranges over the southern seas, nesting in the Chatham 

 Isles and elsewhere in the seas of New Zealand, but at other times 

 wandering as far north in the Pacific as the Kurile Isles. It visits the coasts of 



