PUFFINID-S:. 



267 



262. PXJFFINUS TENUIROSTRIS. 



(SLENDER-BILLED SHEARWATER.) 



ProeeUaria tenuirostris, Temminck, Planches Colorizes, text to no. 587 (1835). 



The Slender-billed Shearwater is the smallest Japanese Shearwater 

 (wing from carpal joint lOJ to 10 inches). It is almost uniform 

 brown, with pale grey under wing-coverts, but dark bill and feet. 



Figures : Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, pi. 86 ; 

 Gould, Birds of Australia, vii. pi. 56, under the name of Puffinus 

 brevicaudus. 



Head of Puffimis tenuirostris. Natural size. 



The Slender-billed Shearwater does not appear to have been pro- 

 cured by the Siebold Expedition, but was originally described by 

 Temminck from an example obtained by Mons. Burger in the Sea of 

 Japan. Capt. Rodgers procured it on tlie east coast of the main 

 island of Japan" a few miles north of the latitude of Yokohama 

 (Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1862, p. 327). An example 

 was picked up after a storm at Yoshino, Yamato, an inland town in 

 the south of the main island forty miles from the coast (Bakiston 

 and Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 218) ; another specimen was picked up 

 much decayed on the beach at Kamakara in Tokio Bay (Blakiston 

 and Pryer, Trans. As. Soc. Japan, 1882, p. 106) ; and there is an 

 example in the British Museum, collected by Captain St. John at 

 Nagasaki in May. 



This Shearwater is said to breed in millions on some of the islands 

 off the coasts of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand, but is pro- 

 bably a non-breeding summer visitor to the North Pacific. 



