45 [Vol. xi. 



lias shown that it is a female and that the real adult male of 

 this fine species is a beautiful black-and-blue bird with a 

 glossy fiery-red breast. It will be exhibited at the next 

 Meeting of this Club and figured and described in detail in 

 the ' Novitates Zoological.'" 



Mr. Ernst Hartert. rend the following note by Mr. W. 

 Buskin Butterfield, on the occurrence of an example of 

 Puffinus obscurus builloni in Sussex : — 



"A small Shearwater was picked up in an exhausted 

 condition on the beach near Bexhill during the hard gale 

 from the W.S.W. on Friday, 28th December, 1900. I am 

 informed by Dr. H. Colborne, the Borough Meteorologist 

 for Hastings, that the south-westerly winds set in about 

 the 23rd of Dec. and continued, with increasing intensity, 

 until the 28th — the windiest day of the year. The bird was 

 kept alive for two days and afterwards passed into the 

 hands of Mr. George Bristow, jun., of this town, when I 

 was afforded an opportunity of seeing it in the flesh. 

 I formed the opinion at the time that it would turn out to 

 belong to the same form as the Shearwaters collected by 

 Capt. Boyd Alexander in the Cape Verd Islands, and 

 referred by him to Puffinus assimilis ('The Ibis/ 1898, p. 98). 

 This opinion has beeu confirmed by Messrs. Ernst Hartert 

 and Howard Saunders, who have kindly examined the 

 specimen. It is a female by dissection. 



' ' Through the kind offices of Mr. Hartert I have been 

 able to compare the present specimen with skins collected by 

 Capt. Alexander, and with skins of the allied forms, and I 

 am not surprised that Messrs. Rothschild and Hartert do 

 not employ the name P. assimilis for this Shearwater (Nov. 

 Zool. vi. p. 196). According to these authorities it should 

 be known as P. obscurus bailloni, Bp., at any rate until it can 

 be shown to be different from the form which occurs in the 

 Mascarenes, Mauritius, &c. 



" This is the third example of P. obscurus bailloni recorded 

 in the British Islands, and the first for the county of 

 Sussex." 



