558 PUFFINID^ 



A third, obtained from the same county, is now in the 

 possession of Mr. J. H. Gurney ; one obtained off the 

 Northumberland coast by the late John Handcock ; one 

 taken off Scarborough, February 5th, 1899, and sent in 

 the flesh to the British Museum (Saunders, Man. Brit. 

 Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 742). A second from Scarborough 

 obtained, September 13th, 1900 (W. J. Clarke, ' Zoologist,' 

 1900, p. 521) ; two more procured in the same locality in 

 1904, one an adult female, on September 17th, the other an 

 immature bird on the 27th (W. J. Clarke, ibid., 1905, p. 74). 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Very similar in plu- 

 mage to the Manx Shearwater, except that the top of head, 

 hind-neck, back, scapulars, and wings are of a brownish 

 shade, and the under tail-coverts and flanks are dusky- 

 brown. 



Adult female nuptial. Similar to the male plumage. 



Adult winter, male and female. Similar to the nuptial 

 plumage. 



Immature, male and female. Somewhat resembles the 

 adult plumage, but the abdominal feathers are dusky, not 

 white, as in the immature of P. anglorum. 



BEAK. Blackish horn-colour. 



FEET. Light brown. 



IRIDES. Dark brown. 



EGG. White : clutch, one. 



AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 



TOTAL LENGTH 15'25 in. 



WING 10 



BEAK 1-9 



TARSO-METATARSTJS... ... ... 1*9 ,, 



EGG . 2-3 x T6 in. 



LITTLE DUSKY SHEARWATER. Puffinus assimilis (Gould). 



Coloured Figures. Dresser, ' Birds of Europe,' vol. ix, pi. 720 ; 

 Lilford, ' Coloured Figures,' vol. vi, pi. 61. 



The Little Dusky Shearwater, which breeds on many 

 of the islands off the west coast of Africa and is distributed 

 over the Australian and New Zealand Seas, is only an 



