LJFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 55 



Although the Cory shearwater has stood, unchallenged as a distinct 

 species, for all these years, it is now generally recognized as a sub- 

 species of the Mediterranean shearwater, Cedonectris kuhlii. There 

 are now three recognized subspecies of this species, G. kuhli kuhZii in 

 the Mediterranean, G. kuhZii edwardsi breeding in the Cape Verde 

 Islands and G. kuhlii flavirostris, or G. kuhlii borealis, as it should be 

 called, breeding in the Canary Islands and the Azores and migrating 

 to the North American coast. As the latter is the bird which belongs 

 on the American list, I shall quote freely from what has been pub- 

 lished about its habits. 



Nesting. — ^Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant (1905) gives the following ac- 

 count of the breeding habits of this species in the Azores, under the 

 name. Puff/mis kuhlii -flavirostris (Gould) : 



This shearwater is very common throughout the seas of the Azores, and dur- 

 ing our Journeys between the different islands we steamed through large flocks 

 either resting on the water, or skimming over the waves, in their characteristic 

 manner. The greatest number were to be seen about the central group of islands, 

 especially round Graciosa, San Jorge, Pico, and Fayal. We saw none in the 

 neighborhood of Corvo, and though we sent men in the middle of April to severaj 

 places on Flores where these shearwaters were known to breed, we were un- 

 able to procure specimens. Toward the end of May, during our stay at San 

 Roque, on the north coast of Pico, numbers of " cagarros " had arrived at their 

 breeding-places in the rocks below the village and flew over our house at night 

 uttering their weird cry. 



When we visited Santa Maria early in March we procured a few specimens 

 captured in the holes in the rocks on Villa Islet, but at that season only a small 

 number were to be found in their breeding haunts. On our return, however, to 

 that island on June 1st we found a large colony had arrived, and nearly all th< 

 nesting holes contained a bird sitting on its single white egg, which was either 

 fresh or only slightly incubated. On the Cabras or Goat Islets, ofC the south of 

 Terceira, which we visited on May 30th, about a dozen birds were found sitting, 

 but many nesting places were still empty, and the fishermen who accompanied 

 us said that a little later the " cagarros " swarm on these rocks. Another large 

 breeding station is on the small island of Praya, off Graciosa, but owing to the 

 ImposoibiUty of landing in a heavy sea we were unable to visit the spot in per- 

 son, though we subsequently secured a number of birds caught by some fishermen 

 sent for the purpose. 



Mr. David A. Bannerman (1914) has given us a very full and 

 interesting account of the distribution and habits of this shearwater 

 in the Canary Islands, from which I quote, as follows : 



A little to the east of Mount Amarilla, just above high watermark, lies 

 a mass of huge boulders piled up one upon another, over the top of which loose 

 sand has drifted, the whole being closely overgrown with a scrubby plant. 

 Small gaps are left between the boulders, and through one of these we managed 

 to squeeze; once inside, our electric torches revealed low caves, into which 

 we had to crawl on hands and knees, and from which a network of subter- 

 ranean passages led in all directions. In these dark recesses, abounding in 

 nooks and crannies, the large shearwaters were sitting. The glare of the 

 torches dazzled their eyes as they shuffled into crevices and behind loose rocks 



