1 68 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



IV. THE DUSKY SHEARWATER. PUFFINUS OBSCURUS. 



Frocellaria obscura, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 559 (1788). 



Puffinus obscurus, B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 198 (1883); 

 Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iv. p. 27 (1884) ; Seebohm, 

 Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 425 (1885); Saunders,' Man. Brit. 

 B. p. 721 (1889) ; Salvin, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 382 

 (1896); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxxii. (1896). 



Adult Male. General colour above slaty-black, with con- 

 cealed greyish-brown bases to the feathers ; wing-coverts like 

 the back, with obsolete whitish fringes to the ends of the 

 greater coverts; quills black, ashy along their inner webs; 

 tail black; head and neck slaty black, like the back; lores 

 also black ; cheeks and sides of face, as well as the entire 

 under surface of the body, pure white ; upper eyelid white ; the 

 ear-coverts black, varied with white edges to the feathers, so 

 that these parts appear as if streaked with white ; the white 

 of the neck ascending behind the ear-coverts ; the sides of 

 the upper breast mottled with black; lower flanks black; 

 thighs and under tail-coverts white; under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries white, the lesser under wing-coverts black at the 

 base, and the edge of the wing mottled with black ; bill dark 

 hazel, paler on the mandible ; feet yellow, with the outside of 

 the tarsus and outer toe black. Total length, 11-2 inches; 

 culmen, 1*15 ; wing, 6*5; tail, 2-5 ; tarsus, 1-4. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male. Total length, ii'o 

 inches; wing, 6-4. 



Characters. The so-called " Dusky " Shearwater is not at all 

 dusky in plumage, not more so than the Manx Shearwater, 

 and like that species, it has a white breast. It may be dis- 

 tinguished by its small size (wing less than 8 inches), and by 

 its pure white axillaries. 



Range in Great Britain. Two specimens of this species have 

 occurred for certain within our limits. One was procured 

 in May, 1853, ofTValentia Harbour in co. Kerry. In April, 

 1858, another example was found dead near Bungay, in 

 Suffolk. The species can, therefore, only be considered a 

 rare and occasional visitor to Britain. Both the above- 



