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Genus PUFFINUS. 



Puffinus, Brisson, Orn. vi. p. 131 (1760). 

 Procellaria apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 213 (1766). 

 Thalassidroma apud Swainson, Classif. of B. ii. p. 374 (1837). 

 Nectris apud Keyserling & Blasius, Wirbelth. Eur. p. 94 (1840). 

 Cymotomus apud Macgillivray, Man. Brit. Orn. ii. p. 13 (1842). 

 Ardenna apud Beichenbach, Syst. Av. p. iv (1851). 



The Shearwaters inhabit the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Australian, Nearctic, and Neo- 

 tropical Begions, being very generally distributed over the face of the ocean. Four species 

 inhabit the Western Palaearctic Begion; and a fourth species, Puffinus obscurus (Gm.), is said 

 to have straggled to us from the American coasts ; but there is, so far as I can ascertain, only 

 one record of its occurrence (viz. that of one obtained at Valentia Harbour, co. Kerry) that is 

 not open to doubt, and I have therefore thought it unadvisable to include it. 



These birds are essentially oceanic in their habits, and in form bear resemblance both to the 

 Fulmars and the Petrels. They are more or less nocturnal in their habits (like the Petrels), have 

 a rapid, gliding flight, and are nomadic, wandering over the face of the ocean from place to 

 place. They feed on animal substances of various kinds, which they pick up from the surface 

 of the water. They breed on desert islands or on wild portions of the coast, and deposit a 

 single white egg in a fissure of a rock or in a hole in the ground. 



Puffi.ntcs anglorum, the type of the genus, has the bill rather longer than the head, slender, 

 much compressed towards the end, slightly recurved, but with the acute tip strongly decurved 

 and hooked, the lower mandible straight with the tip decurved ; nostrils tubular, dorsal ; wings 

 long, pointed, the first quill longest ; tail rather short, rounded ; feet rather large, placed far 

 back ; tarsus moderate, compressed, reticulated ; hind toe very small, scarcely apparent, anterior 

 toes long, slender, fully webbed, the outer toe slightly longer than the centre one ; claws arched, 

 compressed, rather acute. 



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