ARCTIC CINEREOUS SHEARWATER. 



PALMIPEDES. 



Famihj PROCELLARIIDJE. [Botiajmrte.) 



Genus Puffinus. (Brisson.) 



ARCTIC 

 CINEREOUS SHEARWATER. 



Pu^nus major. 



Puffinus major, Faber; Prodromus der Island, 1822. 



" " Temminck; Manuel, vol. iv, p. 507, 1840. 



*' ctnereus, Audubon; Nee Auct. 



Puffin cendre Artique, Of the French. 



Grosser Grauer Puffin, Of the Germans. 



Specific Characters. — Head and scapularies of the same dark brown as the 

 wings; nape light grey, forming a kind of collar; throat and sides of neck 

 pure white. Length of dry skin from end of beak to tip of tail nineteen 

 inches; carpus to tip of wing twelve inches and a half; beak from gape 

 two inches; tubular nostrils half an inch; tarsi two inches; middle toe and 

 claw three inches. 



This Arctic species which, according to Yarrell, has been taken in 

 the British. Isles, I introduce here for the purpose of comparison 

 with the Algerian species last noticed. They are very distinct, and 

 must not, according to the present system of defining species, be 

 considered as varieties of each other, as will be readily conceded 

 ujoon comparing the two figures and the diagnosis of each. 



This species is well known in high latitudes, chiefly in the north- 

 west Atlantic. It is very common in Newfoundland, where, according 

 to Temminck, it breeds in thousands, and it occurs occasionally in 

 the north of Europe. It is the lower figure of Yarrell's "British 

 Birds," vol. iii, p. 624, where an account is given of its capture on 



