244 NATURAL niSIOET SOCIEir OF DUBLIN. 



considerable confusion existed in the naming of several species — in fact, 

 confounding the young or immature bird with other species, or making 

 them altogether distinct as species from the mature bird. Cases of 

 identity are seen in many of our aquatic birds, especially in one (Puf- 

 finus obscurus), the Dusky Petrel, which was noticed and exhibited in 

 this Society some years since as being captured off the Island of Valentia, 

 coast of Kerry, on the night of the 1 1th of May, 1853, wben it flew on 

 board a sloop as the vessel entered the harbour. This bird, which fre- 

 quents the shores of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, and has also been 

 noticed off Madeira, is the only one recorded as occurring on our 

 shores, or on those of Britain. It is identical with Puffinus assi- 

 milis (Gould), described as occurring off Norfolk Island, New Zea- 

 land, and the shores of Eastern Australia. It is also closely similar 

 to the Manx Shearwater, Puffinus Anglorum, but of smaller size. 

 The Great Shearwater, Puffinus major, or Puffinus cinereus, is iden- 

 tical with Puffinus fuliginosus (Strickland), and is closely allied to, 

 and identical in habit with, Procellaria hcesitata, the great Grey 

 Petrel of the seas of Australia. Puffinus cinereus is seldom seen 

 near our shores, although at one time, after a gale of wind, and 

 during a fog succeeding, they were in myriads in Dingle Pay, and 

 many were taken on the fishermen's lines. It is truly a pelagic bird, 

 and seen at long distances from the land when crossing the Atlantic. 

 There are several rare sea birds that breed on the islands of our south- 

 west coast. Lestris catarrhactes has been met on the Tearaght ; the 

 Manx Shearwater, on the Skelligs and Valentia ; and the egg of Bul- 

 wer's Petrel, Thallassidroma Bulweri, has been taken on the Little 

 Skellig Island, where the Gannet breeds in numbers. Many rare Petrels 

 and Shearwaters breed on and frequent islands called the Dezertas — a 

 small group about six leagues from Madeira — and it is not improbable 

 that Puffinus obscurus may be found there. 



Our late lamented Secretary, Professor Kinahan, from notes he had 

 made on the birds of the Southern Seas, had noticed the several species of 

 Diomedea, and their habits ; he had seen them as far south as CapeHorn. 

 He had remarked the variation of the immature birds, which some 

 authors had considered to be species, and he agreed with what I had 

 stated of the extensive ranges taken by the young or immature birds 

 in northern latitudes, some visiting our own shores, where the mature 

 birds were rarely ever seen. 



Professor Jukes said, he would not enter at all into the question men- 

 tioned by Mr. Andrews, upon which he felt incompetent to speak ; he 

 would only express the extreme pleasure it had afforded him to listen 

 to Captain Hutton's paper. It brought back in a most vivid manner 

 old associations of twenty years ago — facts that occurred, and things 

 that had interested him when sailing in those seas formerly himself. 

 He could not but compliment Captain Hutton on the very graphic way in 

 which he had described and figured all those birds. He (Prof. Jukes) had 



