Tuhinares 253 



Family PUPFINID^, or Shearwaters 



The Great Shearwater (Puffinus gravis) is- one of a 

 different group of Petrels, much larger and heavier in 

 their movements than those already described, which 

 are therefore included in a separate family. Their 

 flight is strong, but the birds are usually seen skimming 

 along close to the waves or dashing down into the 

 water, under which they easily follow their prey of 

 fish, cuttle-fish, and other sea animals. The Great 

 Shearwater is not very rare on our coasts, especially 

 those that are rocky, and is represented by a paler 

 form in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Islands ; but 

 it is a curious fact that only one of the breeding -places 

 of our form is known, viz. in Tristan da Cunha, and many 

 persons believe that they all lie in the southern hemi- 

 sphere. But the bird occurs certainly in the Atlantic 

 Ocean from Greenland to the extreme south of America 

 and Africa, so that we may hope for information on 

 this point before long. Several Petrels breed both 

 in the Atlantic and the Pacific, while their range is 

 often hard to determine, as their presence does not 

 always imply that they are breeding in the vicinity. 

 Shearwaters are to a great extent nocturnal, and their 

 weird crooning thrice-repeated cries are most commonly 

 heard in the dusk. The upper parts of the Great Shear- 

 water are brown, the lower white, while the neck is 

 white all round and the upper tail-coverts are parti- 

 coloured. 



The Sooty and Dusky Shearwaters may be left to 

 our list of irregular visitants; the former has been 

 perpetually confounded with P. gravis, though it is a 

 much darker bird, and there are two forms, or species. 



