THE SOOTY SHEARWATER. 2 3? 



South America Mr. A. A. Lane met with great numbers of this Shearwater on 

 the coast of Chili on November 3rd, 1890. " From a distance they presented a 

 remarkable appearance, numbers being settled on the water whilst the air above 

 was full of them, flying in regular succession from the rear to the front of the 

 column. On sculling out I found the. line of those swimming was from a quarter 

 to half-a-uiile across. They were not swimming thickly together, but from one 

 to three yards apart. I did not bag more than one to each shot I fired, as most 

 of them were only wounded, and, as is usually the case, difficult to secure, and 

 whilst I pursued one the rest got well away. The wounded birds on being 

 hauled into the boat, attacked everything most ferociously with their bills, not 

 only biting and worrying oars and cordage, but even each other, screaming and 

 tearing out each other's feathers wholesale, so that before I got time to kill them 

 outright some of them had nearly plucked the others. They varied in size, a 

 male measuring i8'5 inches long. Bill, black ; legs and feet lilac-grey on the 

 inner parts, black on the outer" ("Ibis," 1897, p. 312). Mr. O. V. Aplin met 

 with the Sooty Shearwater near the Castillo Rocks, off the coast of Uruguay, in 

 October and June. 



It visits the fishing grounds on the United States sea-board in small 

 numbers, pushing as far north as Greenland during summer, which is not the 

 breeding season of this Shearwater. A few individuals of those which summer in 

 the North Atlantic wander westward to the Faeroes, but, avoiding Norway, pass 

 down the North Sea, far from land, occasionally entering the Firth of Forth, or 

 striking the Yorkshire coast. A single straggler has been procured at Heligo- 

 land. Those which cross the German Ocean usually enter the Straits of Dover, 

 whence they return once again to the wide Atlantic. A few specimens have been 

 captured on our south-west coast ; but this Petrel does not visit the Welsh coast 

 or the Hebrides according to present information. It has been procured in Irish 

 waters in a few isolated instances. It visits the coasts of France ; but has only 

 once been captured on the coast of Portugal, where the Great Shearwater occurs 

 in some numbers annually, when returning to its breeding quarters in the South 

 Seas. It is interesting to note that the Sooty Shearwater has been obtained on 

 the French coast as early as June. It has occurred in Norfolk as early as July, 

 but its visits to the British Isles are usually arranged for August and September, 

 though it sometimes occurs as late as October and November. An adult taken 

 at Treport was secured after a great storm on the nth of September; but these 

 birds have generally been met with in our waters in fine weather. 



Authenticated eggs of the Sooty Shearwater have been procured in the 

 Chatham Isles. Dr. H. O. Forbes states that the eggs vary in form from ovate 



