390 



THE TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS — TUBINARES. 



I am not aware that anything is known in regard to the habits or specific pecu- 

 liarities of this recent addition to our fauna. It was first met with on our Pacific 

 coast by Mr. John Xantus at Cape St. Lucas, in Lower California, where he procured 

 two fine specimens. It is supposed to occur along the whole of our Pacific coast as 

 far north at least as Oregon. Some eggs have been received by the Smithsonian 

 Institution from the sea-coast of Northern California. From their size and their close 

 resemblance to the eggs of other members of this family, there can be but little doubt 

 that they are eggs of birds of this species. 



Fufiinus Strickland!. 



THE SOOTY SHEARWATER. 



Puffinus faliginosus, Strickl. P. Z. S. 1832, 129 (not Procellaria fuliginosa of Kuhl, 1820). — 

 Lawr. in Baiid's B. N. Am. 1858, 834. — Baiud, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 648.— CouES, 

 Key, 1872, 332 ; Check List, 1873, no. 602 ; ed. 2, 1882, no. 837. — Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 

 1881, no. 714. 



Nectris fidiginosa, Keys. & Blas. Wirb. Eur. 1840, p. xciv. 



Ncdris fuliginosus, CoUES, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1864, 123. 



Puffinus cincreus, Dekay, Zool. N. Y. Birds, 1844, 287, pi. 136, fig. 298. 



Procellaria tristis, LicuT. ed. Forst. Descr. An. 1844, 23. 



Puffinus tristis, Gray, Ibis, 1862, 44. — Buller, B. N. Zeal. 1873, 317. 



Puffinus Stricklandi, Ridgw. MS. 



Hab. North Atlantic Ocean ; south to the coast of New England. 



Sp. Char. Adult: Uniform fuliginous-dusky, much lighter and more grayish underneath ; 

 scapulars, interscapulars, and wing-coverts sometimes indistinctly paler on their terminal margins. 



Bill uniform dusky, sometimes with a brownish 

 tinge ; legs and feet dusky brownish (in the 

 dried skin), the outer side of the tarsus and 

 outer toe blackish. 



Wing, 11.15-12.00 inches ; culmen, 1.60- 

 1.75 ; depth of bill through base, .50-55 ; tar- 

 sus, 2.05-2.15 ; middle toe, 2.05-2.20. 



This species is of very nearly the same size 

 and form as P. major, but is slightly smaller in 

 all its measurements, has the bill decidedly more 

 slender, and the tarsus and middle toe more 

 nearly of the same length. 



The history, habits, and distribution of 

 the Sooty Shearwater have been little 

 known. On our eastern coast it is abundant 

 from the waters of the Korth Atlantic as 

 far south as South Carolina. It escaped 

 the notice of our earlier ornithologists, and 

 no reference is made to it either by Wilson, Nuttall, or Audubon. Indeed all the 

 information we have in regard to this species is very vague and unsatisfactor3\ Its 

 breeding-places and its manner of reproduction have remained entirely unknown. It 

 is at times very abundant during the month of August off the coast of ^Massachusetts, 

 and in the latter part of that month in 1871, during the prevalence of stormy weather, 

 a large number of birds of this species were driven by the storm into Wood's Hole. 

 This Shearwater is stated — on not entirely trustworthy authority — to be especially 



