PEOCEIitAEIIDa! PUFFINUS 469 



Description. Adult. — Above brown, darkest on the head, paler 

 on the neck, most of the feathers of the body edged with paler, 

 primaries and rectriees darker brown, the former white towards the 

 base, the longer upper tail-coverts with white tips ; below white 

 flecked with sooty on the middle of the abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts and spotted on the flanks with the same colour ; under 

 wing-coverts streaked with brown. 



Bill dark horn ; tarsi and toes yeUow, darker outwardly. 



Length 21-0 ; wing 12-0 ; tail 4-50 ; tarsus 2-20 ; culmen 2-25. 



Distribution. — The Great Shearwater is found throughout the 

 Atlantic from Greenland southwards to the Falkland Islands and 

 the Cape seas. Andersson states that it is common in the Cape seas, 

 especially north of the Orange Eiver, but there does not appear to 

 have been an example in his collections. Swinburne has noticed it 

 from 40° S. lat. to the Cape and beyond 45° S. lat. 



There is a specimen in the South African Museum from Inacces- 

 sible Island, one of the Tristan group, and there are two in the 

 British Museum from the " Cape of Good Hope." 



Habits. — Shearwaters are found generally within no great dis- 

 tance from the- land, though seldom resorting thereto except in the 

 breeding season ; they fly well without apparent effort, though at 

 times they flap their primaries ; when alighting this species strikes 

 the water with great violence, hence the vernacular name, and then 

 dives, pursuing its prey under water with considerable rapidity 

 and often tearing the bait from the fishermen's hooks ; their food 

 consists chiefly of cuttle-figh, though any animal substance is 

 greedily swallowed. Nothing is known of their nidification, but as 

 they appear to be in the Northern Hemisphere only from about 

 May to October, they probably resort to some of the islands in the 

 Southern Ocean for this purpose. 



785. PufBnus kuhli. Mediterranean Shearwater., 



Procellaria kuhli, Boie, Isis, 1835, p. 257. 



Puffiaus kuhli, Pelzeln, Nova/ra Beise, Vogel, p. 142 (1865) ; Dresser, 



B. Eur. viii, p. 513, pi. 615 (1877) ; Salvin, Cat. B. M. xxv, p. 375 



(1896) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 166 (1896). 



Description. Adult. — Above brown, darker on the head, the 

 feathers of the back with paler edges ; the longer upper tail-coverts 

 whitish or mottled ; wings and tail darker brown than the back ; 



