515 



when quartered in Malta: — "On the 1st November, 1873, I purchased a young bird of this 

 species, alive, which had been captured the day previous on the island of Filfla, an uninhabited 

 rock three miles south of Malta. Preparatory to killing and preserving it, I took measurements 

 and notes of colour of soft parts. Iris very dark hair-brown, eyelid black, inside margins of beak 

 light greenish yellow, fauces and tongue light pink, tarsi and feet washed-out pink, apex of bill 

 greenish yellow, culmen slate-brown, rims of nares slate-brown, remainder of bill greenish yellow ; 

 grey down still remaining on top of head, breast, belly, and thighs ; back, forehead, throat, neck, 

 greater and lesser wing-coverts devoid of down. Contents of stomach a greenish substance and 

 the horny mandibles of some species of Cephalopoda, probably Loligo vulgaris, Lamk. This 

 bird breeds somewhat abundantly on the southern coast of Gozo. On the 12th of April, 1874, 

 it had deposited its eggs : it would therefore appear probable that it rears more than one young 

 one during the breeding-season. It nests in holes and crannies of the limestone cliffs which 

 form the southern coast of Gozo. At the fine headland Wardiah, on the date before mentioned, 

 I came upon two urchins armed with a fish-hook attached to a piece of cane, with which they 

 were gaffing the Shearwaters out of their holes. I have never seen better crag-climbers than 

 these two little Gozo boys ; they ran along the face of the perpendicular cliff, by rabbit-tracks 

 and ledges that would make a goat hesitate. On this occasion they succeeded in capturing four 

 Cinereous and one Manx Shearwater, also procuring two eggs of the latter and one of the former 

 species; this last specimen, however, was smashed. From a projecting angle of the cliff I had a 

 good view of the ejectment of a Cinereous Shearwater from its nest : there was a grassy ledge 

 some 300 feet above the sea-level, to which the boys climbed ; and as soon as they put their hook 

 into a hole, out flew a Cinereous Shearwater, which, instead of flying down to the sea, rose high 

 in air, and was pursued by a dozen or so of Mediterranean Herring-Gulls, who were nesting in 

 the neighbourhood ; these Gulls followed, and struck vigorously at the Shearwater, which easily 

 eluded them, and became lost to view on the sky-line. The fishermen say that the green sub- 

 stance found in the stomachs of these birds is the digested leaves of the Inula crithmoides, a plant 

 somewhat like samphire, which grows in abundance near the sea-shores of these islands; but I 

 am somewhat disinclined to believe that birds of this order feed on vegetable matter : however, 

 as the Maltese are excellent observers of nature, I will not commit myself to a decided negative. 

 Mixed with this unctuous green matter I have usually found the mandibles of Cephalopoda, and 

 in one instance the ova of some fish. When sailing round the coast of Malta this summer I 

 found this species very abundant; at night they circled round the yacht like great bats. Their 

 cry is melancholy and weird-like, owyali I owyah ! " 



I have received the eggs of this bird from Dr. Kriiper. They are white in colour, resembling 

 those of Puffinus anglorum in shape and texture of shell, but are larger in size, measuring 2f^ 

 by 1J^ inch. 



The specimen figured, on the same Plate with Puffinus anglorum, is the bird above 

 described. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



