The Egg of Thalassidroma Leachii, etc. 311 
A good deal of confusion relative to this species has pre- 
vailed in all works upon European ornithology, caused by 
blending together what are now supposed to be two entirely 
distinct species. Temminck was the first, in the third 
part of his Manual, to make this separation, and to indicate 
the specific differences between the true Puffinus cinereus 
and the Pufinus major, of Faber. The former is a bird 
found in abundance in the Mediterranean, breeding in and 
around Corsica, but not known to have been found in the 
British islands, on the Atlantic coast of Europe, or in Ame- 
rica. 
The latter is stated by Temminck to be abundant in high 
northern latitudes, and among other places he speaks of New- 
foundland as one of its localities. . It is, however, spoken of 
as rare in Iceland, and but few instances are known of its 
having been obtained in Great Britain. The statement of its 
abundance on the coast of Newfoundland, I am inclined to 
believe, needs confirmation and is probably not correct. It 
is undoubtedly an American bird, and is the same as that 
referred to by Audubon, Bonaparte, &c. under the name of 
Puffnus cinereus. The name of Puffinus major, Greater ` 
Shearwater, given it in the first instance by Faber to dis- 
tinguish it from the. common Manx Shearwater, P uffinus 
Anglorum, and retained by Temminck and Yarrell, is not 
well chosen, as the bird is two inches shorter and is smaller 
than the Pufinus cinereus, with which it has been con- 
founded. 
Audubon speaks of having seen it in abundance off the 
coast of Nova Scotia, but as he obtained no specimens it 1s 
quite possible he mistook some other bird for this species. 
De Kay includes it among the birds of New York, and 
speaks of it as an accidental visitant. In this he is probably 
correct, and I think the result will show that the same is true 
of nearly our whole coast, and that it is not only not an 
exclusively northern species, but more southern than north- 
ern, a great wanderer over the ocean, visiting both shores of 
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