The Levantine Shearwater-The Dusky Shearwater. 2 35 



Family— PUFFINIDAL. Subfamily— PUFFININsE. 



Levantine Shearwater. 



Puffi-nus yelkonanus (AcERBl.) 



THIS Shearwater is the Mediterranean representative of the Manx Shearwater, 

 and ranges over that sea from the Bosphorus and Smyrna to the coasts of 

 Egypt, Italy, Corsica, and North Africa. As long ago as 1888, I pointed out 

 that a Shearwater, which Mr. Howard Saunders had described as the young of the 

 Manx Shearwater, belonged to some other species which occasionally visited British 

 waters. It is now established that the Levantine Shearwater strays to the South- 

 west of England ; specimens from Torbay and Plymouth are in the Natural 

 History Museum, and I found a third specimen in the Cambridge Museum. The 

 Levantine Shearwater has the upper parts paler and browner than the Manx 

 Shearwater, and the flanks and under tail-coverts are usually dusky brown. Length 

 about 15 inches; bill rg; tarsus i - 8. 



Family— PUFFINIDAL. Subfamily— PUF FINING. 



Dusky Shearwater. 



Puffinus obscurus (Gmel.) 



THE Dusky Shearwater nests in the Bahamas, Bermudas, Barbados, and other 

 islands, and ranges over the tropical and sub-tropical seas of the whole 

 world. It has twice visited this country. In April, 1858, a Dusky Shearwater 

 was picked up dead near Bungay, Suffolk. A second specimen, procured in 

 Devonshire, is in the Natural History Museum. The upper surface of this Petrel 

 is nearly uniform slaty black; the white of the under surface reaches nearly to 

 the orbit of the eye, where, as on the sides of the neck, the feathers are mottled ; 

 the under tail-coverts are blackish-brown, tipped with white ; but the dark colouring 

 of these coverts varies in extent in individuals. Total length about 12 inches; 

 wing y8; bill 1-5; tarsus 1-5. 



