GREAT SHEARWATER. 



PUFFINUS MAJOR, Faber. 



Puffinus major, Faber, Prodr. isl. Orn. p. 56 (1822). 

 Puffinus cinereus, Macg. v. p. 438. 



Puffinus major, Heivitson, ii. p. 516; Yarr. ed. 4, iv. p. 12; 

 Dresser, viii. p. 527. 



Petrel puffin, French. 



This Shearwater appears irregularly, occasionally in 

 large numbers, on our southern and western coasts. 



I had the good fortune, in company with Mr. W. 

 Vingoe, of Penzance, to find a very fine fresh specimen 

 dead on the beach near Marazion, in the summer of 

 1852, and this year (1888) purchased the specimen from 

 which the drawing for the Plate was taken, of that well- 

 known and excellent taxidermist, recently deceased. 



This specimen was killed some years ago in Mount's 

 Bay. 



It is impossible to distinguish this species on the 

 wing from the large Shearwater of the Mediterranean 

 (P. kuhli), but one or the other species is frequent at all 

 seasons in the Bay of Biscay and off the west coast of 

 Spain and Portugal. 



The fishermen in Scilly assured me that a pair or two 

 of " Hagbolts," as they call this bird, bred amongst the 

 rocks of one of the south-western islets of the group, 

 and I saw several during my stay at St. Mary's in 

 IS52. 



