PROCELLARIID^. 405 



extremely numerous on the seas off the South-western Counties of 

 England, although few people, perhaps, have seen it alive, because it very 

 rarely indeed enters any of our estuaries, and would never do so were it 

 not occasionally driven in by violent gales, after which it is sometimes 

 picked up far inland. We have seen great numbers of Manx Shearwaters 

 in Torbay in October, skimming in flocks over the surface of the water, 

 and every now and then cutting through the crests of the waves, a habit 

 from whence they derive their English name. We secured several 

 examples, all of them having ash-grey underparts, which we judged to 

 signify the first year's plumage. Two adults, with pure white breasts, 

 were obtained on the Earnstaple river after the very rough weather in 

 October ibUl. Anyone who in the summer visited a breeding-station of 

 the Manx Shearwater would have little suspicion of the vast bird- 

 popu.ation concealed beneath his feet, for in the daytime all the birds are 

 ill their burrows, and do not venture out until the night is well advanced. 

 One beautiful summer's night when we were on Skomer Island for the 

 express purpose of being introduced to the myriads of Shearwaters 

 resorting there to breed, we found no birds stirring at 10 p.m., so returned 

 to our friend's hospitable house for another game of whist, and going out 

 again a little before 1 1 o'clock discovered that the hosts of Shearwaters were 

 oulj- then beginning to awake. Presently the air all around us was filled 

 with the strange wailing of the birds; they were flitting on either side 

 and crossing us about the height of our head, coming close to our face as 

 they passed like ghosts ; we could see them issuing from their holes at 

 our feet, and flapping a little distance upon the ground before they could 

 rise on wing, a circumstance which was taken advantage of by an old dog 

 from the farm which had joined us, and which caught and brought the 

 Shearwaters to our hand until we called out " hold, enough ! " Each bird 

 we took immediately vomited a quantity of oil, when, as we were in no 

 need of specimens, we tossed it into the air and let it go. At the first 

 streak of dawn the noise of the birds gradually ceased, and when the sun 

 was up silence again reigned, and all had returned to their burrows. In 

 the summer-time when we have been on the water small parties of Shear- 

 waters have sometimes crossed our boat flying rapidly and silently onward, 

 80 that there are a few abroad in the daytime. The birds nest in their 

 burrows, which are either stolen from the rabbits, or excavated by them- 

 selves in the light sandy soil, and deposit a single white egg, about the 

 size of a hen's egg. 



" Often mot with by our fishermen iu the vicinity of the Eddystono. In October 

 \Hli'2 seven were obtained in the Sound by Mr. Drew. Two were brouglit alive to 

 Mr. Maf^rath in the Buminer of lH'.j'.i, and two otliers are in tlie collection of JJartlett, 

 a bookseller in i'lyinoiilh " (Mag. Nat. Hist. l.S:{7, p. .'{(lO). Two siiocimens at I'ly- 

 riKjulli, -Vpril liOlh, l.S.")5 (U., MS. Notes). Some oil' the l■;(ldy8^on^^ in Au;,nHt IH71 ; 

 hundreds in the Channel o(I' I'ly mouth, March 1S77, and at the end of April 1S7S, and 

 one about August 22nd, 1M7S. 



P'rom the late Mr. (iateombe's notes, the Manx Shearwater appears to be soiiietimna 

 very numerous in tho Ciiannel, some distance out at sea, od" the south coast in March 

 and April (Zool. 1H77, p. 27 'J ; 1M7S, pp. 418, 4.'i2 ; anil MS Notes), and a few are seen 

 in August. Mr. Cecil Smith gays it is by no means uiiC(jmmon on both tiie north and 



