PUFFINUS FULIGINOSUS : SOOTY SHEARWATER. 385 



33.00 ; wing, 9.50 ; tail, 4.00, graduated 0.75 ; bill, i. 33-1. 50, but 

 nearly 0.50 deep at base ; tarsus under 2.00 ; middle toe and 

 claw, 2.00, or rather less. 



This is a species which has been admitted to our 

 Fauna for many years, but upon authority which, to say 

 the least, requires confirmation. Dr. Brewer claims that 

 no specimen has ever been taken, and is probably right 

 in so doing (see Pr. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xvii, 1875, p. 

 453, and XX, 1879, P- ^75 ; also Allen, Bull. Essex Inst., 

 X, 1878, p. 3S). At the same time, we do not feel at 

 liberty to refuse to recognize records which have passed 

 unchallenged for many years, and which we are not 

 prepared to disprove. There is unquestionably, in our 

 opinion, a small New England Shearwater, neither 

 P. major nor P. fuliginosus, perfectly well known to 

 fishermen, if not to our ornithologists. Capt. J. W. Col- 

 lins, of the U. S. Fish Commission, a very accurate 

 observer, assures us of this, he himself knowing of 

 three species of " Hags," one of which is the common 

 P. major, another is the one all blackish, P. fuliginosus, 

 the third being the one in question, like P. major, but 

 smaller, darker above, and white below. Mr. R. S. New- 

 comb, since naturalist of the ill-fated " Jeannette" expe- 

 dition, also speaks of different kinds of " Hags," among 

 them P. anglorum. 



SOOTY SHEARWATER. 

 PuFFiNUS FULIGINOSUS A. Strickl. 



Chars. Dark sooty-brown, blackening on the quills and tail ; paler 

 and grayish below, usually with some whitish on the lining of the 

 wings; bill dark; feet dark outside, pale on the inner aspect. 



