PUFFINUS ASSIMILIS. 



(GOULD'S SHEARWATER.) 



Puffinus assimilis, Gould, P. Z. S. 1837, p. 156. 



Puffinus bailloni, Bp. Compt. Eend. xlii. p. 769 (1856). 



"Puffinus nugax, Solander, MS.," Bp. Consp. Gen. Av. ii. p. 205 (1857). 



Procellaria nugax, Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, vi., Procellaria, p. 31 (1863). 



Puffinus ohscurus (nee Gmel.), Finsch, J. f. O. 1870, p. 370. 



Figura nulla. 



Ad. P. obscuro similis, sed corpore supr& magis schistaceo, loris albis et capitis lateribus magis albo notatis : 

 subalaribus, axillaribus et pogonio interno remigum ia parte basali albis, subcaudalibus albis 

 immaculatis. 



Adult (Porto Santo, February 14th). Differs from P. obscurus in having the upper parts rather bluer in 

 tinge, the white extending rather more round the eye and on the lores ; under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries pure white ; the outer portion of the inner web of the primaries white, except at the 

 tip; under tail-coverts pure white. Total length about 10 inches, culmen 1 -2, wing 7T, tail 2*85, 

 tarsus 1*42. 



Nestling (Santa Ursula, April 18th). Covered with close soft down; the upper parts brownish grey; the 

 underparts pale ashy grey ; the centre of the abdomen nearly pure white. 



Obs. In the adult plumage the differences between the present species and Puffinus obscurus are very 

 apparent, but the young bird of the present species has the under tail-coverts marked with greyish 

 brown, and the white on the inner webs of the primaries is duller, so that in that stage of plumage the 

 two species are not so easy to discriminate. 



The present species, closely allied to Puffinus obscurus, with which it has been so frequently 

 confounded, inhabits the Australian and New Zealand seas, and also the Atlantic Ocean, 

 occurring as far north as the Canaries and Madeira, where it breeds. Capt. Savile Reid, 

 Messrs. Meade-Waldo and Ogilvie Grant all record it from these islands, and I have received 

 many specimens of both the bird and egg from Don Ramon Gomez, of Orotava, and 

 Padre Schmitz, of Funchal. Mr. Ogilvie Grant, who met with it during his visit to the Salvage 

 Islands, writes (Ibis, 1896, p. 50) that, so far as he could ascertain, it " was the only other bird 

 of this genus [besides P. kuhli] that visits Great Salvage. At Porto Santo we had already found 

 it breeding plentifully on the Lime Island, and satisfied ourselves that it is this species — and not 

 P. obscurus — that occurs there. The young birds do not show the white inner webs to the quills 

 clearly, and hence Mr. Salvin and I were both led to believe that the specimens brought back in 

 1890 were the young of P. obscurus. I recently examined more than a dozen old birds in 



