164 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



not exceeding 9 inches in length. The primaries are wholly 

 dark underneath. The upper surface is black, the axillaries 

 white with a sub-terminal black mark, and the flanks and 

 under tail-coverts are mostly white. 



Range in Great Britain. The Manx Shearwater is found in 

 winter on most of our coasts, but breeds only in the Orkneys 

 and Shetland Islands, the Hebrides, and in certain places on 

 the west coast of England and Wales, as far south as the 

 Scilly Isles. In Ireland, Mr. Ussher says that the species 

 breeds on the headlands and islands of Donegal, Antrim, 

 Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Kerry, and Mayo, and probably in 

 other counties. 



Range outside the British Islands. The Manx Shearwater 

 breeds in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Iceland and the 

 Faeroes, extending to the coast of Norway and south to 

 Madeira and the Canaries. On the American side it is also 

 met with, and in winter extends south to the coasts of 

 Brazil. 



Habits. Saxby has given the following account of the bird 

 in his " Birds of Shetland " : " This interesting bird, the 

 * Lyric-bird ' of Orkney, usually arrives in Shetland at the end 

 of April, or in the first days of May, and seems to lose no 

 time in going to earth, being almost as truly a burrowing 

 animal as any mole or rabbit. The earliest intimation of its 

 arrival has repeatedly been brought to me by the folks who 

 have taken it from the holes. Oddly enough, the fishermen, 

 who have such abundant opportunities for observation, most 

 positively assert that the bird is never seen abroad in the day- 

 time. That they are wrong, I for one can testify. I have seen 

 it at all times of the day, though, so far as I can remember, not 

 during the breeding season. Indeed, as Mr. Robert Gray well 

 remarks, there are few sights more picturesque in their way than 

 that of a group of Shearwaters disporting themselves in a breeze 

 of wind. The name of the bird seems to be derived from its 

 strange habit of suddenly sweeping down towards the surface 

 of the water, and ploughing it up with its breast. The splash 

 of the Shearwater is quite unlike that of the Tern, and, 

 although, of course, on a smaller scale, exactly resembles that 



