SOOTY SHEARWATER. 427 



PUFFINUS GRISEUS. 

 SOOTY SHEARWATER. 



Procellaria grisea, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 564 (1788) ; et auctorum plurimorum 

 (Finsch), (Salvin), (Baird, JBrewer, 8f Ridgway), (Sounders), &c. 



Procellaria tristis, Licht. Descr. An. Coll. J. R. Forst, p. 205 (1844). 



Nectris fuliginosus, a. chilensis, Bonap. Consp. ii. p. 202 (1857). 



Puffinus tristis (Licht.), Gray, Ibis, 1862, p. 244. 



Nectris amaurosoma, Coues, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1864, p. 124. 



Puffinus amaurosoma (Coues), Gray, Hand-l. B. iii. p. 102 (1871). 



Puffinus griseus (Gmel.), Finsch, Journ. Orn. 1874, p. 209. 



Puffiuus stricklandi, Saird, Brewer, fy Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. ii. p. 390 

 (1884). 



Puffinus fuliginosus (Kuhl), apud Strickland, (Keyserling 8f Blasius), &c. 



The first recorded example of the Sooty Shearwater in the British Islands 

 was shot by Mr. George Marwood, Jun., at the mouth of the Tees, in the 

 middle of August 1828. It was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society of London by Mr. Arthur Strickland, who communicated the 

 particulars of its capture (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1832, p. 129). Since that date 

 so many examples have been obtained that a detailed notice of their capture 

 is unnecessary. Yorkshire heads the list with nine, Northumberland and 

 Devon with two each ; and Norfolk, Cornwall, and Dorset each furnish an 

 example. Saxby and Gray state that this Shearwater has been captured in 

 the Shetlands and off Caithness, but the identification of the species is not 

 quite conclusive. An example shot off North Berwick is referred to this 

 species by Mr. J. Dalgleish. In Ireland this bird is of only accidental 

 occurrence. It is said to have been seen off Cork Harbour by Mr. R. 

 Warren, one was shot off the coast of Kerry, and another, now in the 

 possession of Mr. Lloyd Patterson, was shot in Belfast Lough. All these 

 examples, where a date is given, were taken in autumn. 



The only known breeding-place of the Sooty Shearwater is on the 

 Chatham Islands east of New Zealand, but there can be little doubt that 

 many other nesting-places of this species remain to be discovered both in 

 the Atlantic and the Pacific. In the former ocean it has been obtained in 

 the Bay of Fundy, off the coasts of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Green- 

 land, on the Faroes, the coasts of the British Islands and those of Northern 

 France, and as far south as the Cape seas. In the latter ocean it has been 

 found on the east coast of Australia, the shores of New Zealand, the coast 

 of Chili, and off the southern promontory of California. 



The Sooty Shearwater is not known to differ in its habits from its allies. 

 Its egg is unknown, as it is impossible to accept Buller's statement that it 



