PUFFINIDZ. 743 
THE LITTLE DUSKY SHEARWATER. 
PUuFFINUS AssfMILIS, Gould. 
The subject of this illustration was brought to Yarrell by Mr. B. 
Blackburn of Valentia Harbour in co. Kerry, who afterwards sent a 
note to the effect that the bird flew on board a small sloop in that 
vicinity late in the evening of May 11th 1853. This specimen was 
exhibited at a meeting of the Linnean Society in the following 
June, and is now in the Dublin Museum. In ‘The Zoologist’ for 
1858 the late Mr. H. Stevenson stated that he had examined a 
second example, which was found dead on the Earsham estate, near 
Bungay in Suffolk, about April roth of the above year ; and this, 
the property of Capt. Meade, of Earsham Hall, was exhibited by 
the late Mr. Osbert Salvin, at a meeting of the Zoological Society on 
May 16th 1882. According to the original account, the bird had 
probably been driven inland by a gale and had come in contact with 
a tree, since it had a wound on one side of the head as if from a 
violent blow. Both these specimens were originally referred to the 
Dusky Shearwater, Puffinus obscurus ; but in the 1st Edition of this 
work it was hinted that the names would probably have to be inter- 
changed, in view of later knowledge and increased material. Through 
the kindness of the owners, a re-examination of both examples has 
taken place, with the result that our visitors prove to be P. assimilis. 
This small Shearwater breeds on the islets of the Madeiran group, 
especially the Desertas, where the late Mr. E. Vernon Harcourt, and 
subsequently Mr. Hurrell, obtained birds and eggs ; it also nests on 
the Salvages, nearer to the Canaries ; as well as in the Cape Verde 
Islands. Southward, it is found in the Australian and New Zealand 
