476 Mr. D. A. Bannerman on the Distribution of 



Breeding range in the Canary Islands. 



I consider it very doubtful whether this Shearwater breeds 

 at the present day in the Canary Islands. All the evidence 

 which I can gather on this score is decidedly in the negative. 

 The first evidence of its occurrence in the Canary Islands 

 is given by Webb, Berthelot, and Moquin - Tandon in 

 their historical work '^ Ornithologie Canarienne.'' These 

 authorities give as its habitat "Dans I'ile deserte d^Alegranza/^ 

 and in an observation say " Des mariniers de Lancerotte nous 

 rapporterent cette espece vivante^ prise dans File d'Alegranza^ 

 oil elle habite toute I'annee/' BoUe, writing in 1854, 

 includes the species as an inhabitant of Allegranza^ but in 

 1857^ after he had he apparently paid a visit to the island 

 himself, he omits it from his final list. Savile Reid saw 

 hundreds of P. pufinus on the sea off Tenerife on the 19th 

 of March, 1887. Floericke, writing in 1905^ makes the 

 astounding statement that " P. anglorwn is the form most 



numerous on the sandy eastern islands It breeds most 



frequently on the Desertas." This statement is absolutely 

 incorrect — in fact, I do not believe Floericke can have ever 

 set foot either on the Desertas or eastern islands, at any rate 

 at the time the Petrels were breeding. It is a thousand 

 pities that such misleading statements are published. Un- 

 fortunately, Polatzek, a careful and reliable observer, in 1908 

 quotes Floericke's notes on this species. Meade-Waldo 

 considered that it did not come to land but was sometimes 

 common on the water in winter. 



Dr. Le Boi has been good enough to inform me that there 

 is an adult bird of this species from Tenerife in the Museum 

 Koenig at Bonn, but without any further data attached. 

 The bird which Dr. Koenig speaks of (J. f. O. 1890, p. 462) 

 from Palma no longer exists in the museum, but was 

 destroyed some time ago ; it was presented to Dr. Koenig 

 and said to have been obtained at Palma. 



My strongest reason for considering that Pufinus p. 

 pufinus does not nest at the present day on any of the Canary 

 Islands, is that I have myself spent a considerable time in the 



