NATATORES. PUFFIN US. 527 



coverts, and secondary quills fine bluish-grey. Quill 

 feathers blackish-grey. Legs yellow, tinged with grey. 

 Tail rounded. 



Fig. 2. The bird before having acquired maturity. 



Head, neck, rump, tail, and under plumage ash-grey. A Young, 

 spot of blackish-grey at the anterior angle of the eye. 

 Upper plumage deep ash-grey, with a slight tinge of 

 brown. Bill and legs yellow, tinged^with grey. 



GENUS PUFFINUS, RAY. SHEARWATER. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



BILL as long as, or longer than, the head, straight, slender, 

 subcylindrical, with the tip of the upper mandible arched 

 and hooked, that of the lower one bent downwards, and fit- 

 ting into the upper without any angle at the symphasis. 

 Nostrils basal, tubular, with two distinct truncated openings 

 in front. 



Wings long, acuminate, with the first quill-feather the 

 longest. Tail rounded. Legs having the tarsi of mean 

 length, laterally compressed. Feet of three toes, entirely 

 webbed; hind toe represented by a straight nail or claw. 

 General contour rather long. 



The Shearwaters are distinguished from the birds of the 

 preceding genus by the comparative slenderness and weak- 

 ness of the bill, and the peculiar modification of its tip, both 

 mandibles being bent downwards. As also in the nostrils, 

 which are formed (as it were) of two tubes cemented sideways 

 together, and opening outwardly by two separate truncated 

 apertures instead of one, as in the Fulmar. Their legs are 

 placed farther backwards, and the tarsi are longer in propor- 

 tion and very much compressed, a formation which, without 



