74 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



winter resort. One found dead on Long Island, New York (Fire 

 Island Beach, August 30, 1917). 



Egg rf<wfe«.— British Isles : Thirty-four records, March 14 to June 

 23 ; seventeen records, May 17 to June 1. Iceland : Three records, 

 June 6, 10, and 15. 



PUFFINUS LHERMINIERI LHERMINIERI LeBSon. 



AVDVBON SHEAHWATES. 



HABITS. 



ContriTmted by Charles Wendell Townsend. 



Audubon in The Birds of America begins his account of this 

 species by the following sentence : 



On the 26th of June, 1826, while becalmed on the Gulf of Mexico, ofC the 

 western shores of Florida, I observed that the birds of this species, of which 

 some had been seen daily since we left the mouth of the Mississippi, had be- 

 come very numerous. The mate of the vessel killed four at one shot, and, at 

 my request, brought them on board. From one of them I drew the figure 

 which has been engraved. The notes made at the time are now before me and 

 afford me the means of presenting you with a short account of the habits of 

 this bird. 



The great Audubon not only procured specimens, but he sketched 

 them in the flesh, and recorded his notes on the spot, and with such 

 care and detail that in many cases one can find nowhere else such 

 a complete description of habits. Audubon considered this bird to 

 be P. ohscurus. Godman (1907), the latest authority on this group 

 of birds, says that the Audubon shearwater "so much resembles 

 P. ohscurus that some of the American specimens are scarcely to 

 be distinguished from it, and I separate the two with great hesita- 

 tion." 



Nesting. — The Audubon shearwater arrives on the breeding grounds 

 early in the season. Bryant ( 1861 ) found that incubation had already 

 begun in the Bahamas by March 24, Lowe (1911) found it with eggs 

 at the Bermudas on May 12, and reports that Colonel Feilden ob- 

 tained eggs of this bird in Barbados in March. Bonhote (1903) 

 found in the Bahamas that the young were in most cases just hatched 

 at the beginning of May, although several fresh eggs were procured. 

 At the present day the bird is known in the Bahamas as the " pimlico " 

 or " pemblyco." 



Social in its disposition, this bird breeds in communities in holes, 

 or crevices of the rocks, but seldom more than a foot from the surface. 

 The single egg is laid on the rock or iri a loosely constructed nest of 

 twigs or dried grass. The egg is white, fragile, and not highly 

 polished. The measurements of 39 eggs, in various collections, aver- 



