528 



coloured, in fact almost white on the tertiaries &c. With advancing age the feathers become more and 

 more of a duller brown, much like that given by Audubon in his plate; the margins are broader, less 

 deeply defined, and simply of a dull greyish brown. Constant characters, however, seem to be the 

 uniformity in colour of the feathers of the head, there being no light margins to them, the peculiar line 

 of demarcation on the sides of the head and neck, and the partially white upper, and almost wholly 

 dark under tail-coverts." 



Throughout the whole of the Atlantic Ocean, from the coasts of Greenland to the Cape of Good 

 Hope and Terra del Fuego, the present species appears to range generally, but it does not pene- 

 trate into the Baltic or Mediterranean, being replaced in the later sea by Puffinus JcuJili. It is 

 of not unfrequent occurrence off the coasts of Great Britain, being more especially met with on 

 the west side of our island. 



As will be seen in my article on Puffinus griseus, I have ventured to differ with Mr. Gould 

 and other authors who have united that bird with Puffinus major, for reasons there given ; and 

 as the two species have very generally been united, it is somewhat difficult to discriminate, in 

 treating of the occurrences of the Great Shearwater, as to whether the present species or Puffinus 

 griseus is referred to ; but, so far as I can ascertain, the present species has occurred in Great 

 Britain much more frequently than P. griseus. Yarrell figures one sent to him by Mr. D. W. 

 Mitchell, of Penzance, who wrote to him as follows: — "In November 1839 a man brought me a 

 Puffinus major alive, which he said he had found asleep in his boat when he went off to unmoor 

 her, preparatory to a fishing expedition. I suppose this happened about three in the afternoon, 

 and that the bird had probably taken up his quarters at daylight. The moorings at Newlyn are 

 from a hundred to two hundred yards from the shore. There were great numbers of this species 

 off Mounts Bay at that time ; and I soon after had two more brought to me which had been taken 

 by hooks. The adult bird appears pretty regularly every autumn, though not always in equal 

 numbers. It has long been in several collections at Plymouth, though it does not appear to 

 have been distinguished there from Puffinus anglorum until Dr. Moore published his Catalogue 

 of the Birds of Devon. The latter is not a very common bird there, which may have been the 

 cause of such a mistake. Puffinus major is very well known to the Scillonians, by whom it is 

 called Hackbolt. They inform me that it is a constant visitant in the latter part of the autumn, 

 and represent its manners on the water as resembling those of P. anglorum. I recollect seeing 

 four last year, through a telescope, in Mounts Bay. It was late in the afternoon, the wind 

 blowing hard from S.S.W., which accounted for their being so far inshore, as they are generally 

 deep-sea goers. They had exactly the flight of P. anglorum, and kept so close to the water as 

 almost to skim the tops of the waves. Mr. Clement Jackson told me last spring that they appear 

 some autumns off Looe and Polperro in thousands." 



The specimen I have figured was obtained near Plymouth by Mr. J. Banker in December 

 1852, and after his death purchased of his widow for me by my friend Mr. Gatcombe. This and 

 another, a pair, were captured in an exhausted state by a couple of trawl-boys in Plymouth 

 Sound, on the 11th December, and by them sold the same evening to Mr. Banker. The other 

 specimen, a female, was sent by Mr. Gatcombe, through Mr. J. H. Gurney, to the Norwich 

 Museum. Curiously enough Mr. Halting (I. c.) records these two specimens under the name of 

 Puffinus ohscurus, a perfectly distinct species. 



