408 



Padre Schmitz's collection at Madeira, which had been obtained at Porto Santo, and these were, 

 without exception, typical P. assimilis. At Great Salvage we procured downy young in various 

 stages, and one late egg, almost fresh ; this is large for the size of the bird, and the shell is pure 

 white and perfectly oval in shape, the two poles being equally rounded. We never saw much 

 of these birds. During the daytime there were generally some to be seen at sea, often in 

 company with the Mediterranean Shearwater, and one night an old female flew into our camp 

 attracted by the powerful lantern. Every night our men used to sally forth in pairs, to search 

 for this and other species of Petrels, in their nesting-cavities on the sides of the cliffs — bad 

 enough walking, even in daylight, but no harm came of it. One man carried the lamp (a tin 

 coffee-pot it looked like, filled with kerosene oil, and with a coarse cotton wick protruding from 

 the spout), which gave out a brilliant light, while his companion searched the numerous miniature 

 ca,ves and crevices till he had filled his own and the lamp-bearer's shirts with birds of various 

 kinds. In this way we got several nice adults of this species, which were never to be found with 

 their young during the day. The note of these birds we never ascertained, and when seen on 

 the wing they were always perfectly silent so far as we noticed." 



Mr. F. DuCane Godman records (Ibis, 1866, p. 104) a small Shearwater from Flores, 

 Azores, which is doubtless referable to the present species. It was said to arrive there in 

 March and to breed in the cliffs. 



I do not find any record of its occurrence in other parts of the Atlantic; but Taczanowski 

 (J. f. O. 1870, p. 55) states that he saw several pairs at Stora, Algeria, of a small Shearwater 

 which he records as P. obscurus, but which belonged more probably to the present species. 



In the Australian seas this Shearwater appears to be generally distributed and fairly 

 common. Mr. Gould says (Handb. B. of Austr. ii. p. 459) that all the specimens lie obtained 

 were procured on Norfolk Island, where it is said to breed. On his voyage homeward from 

 Australia he saw numerous examples flying off the north-eastern end of New Zealand. 



Mr. Salvin, in the recently published volume of the Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum, separates the form of the Manx Shearwater inhabiting the Mediterranean under the 

 name of Puffinus yelkouanus (Acerbi) (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 379), and says that it can 

 always be distinguished from the northern form in having £S the upper surface paler and browner ; 

 the flanks and under tail-coverts usually dusky brown ; the axillaries brown towards their ends ; 

 the tarsi and toes longer. Total length about 15 inches, wing 9*0; tail, central rectrices 2*75, 

 lateral rectrices 2 - 6 ; bill T9, tarsus T8, middle and outer toes T95, inner toe T55." The range 

 he gives as the "Mediterranean Sea, straying northwards to the coasts of Devonshire and 

 Cornwall." 



I have carefully compared the series in the British Museum and those in my own collection, 

 and regret that I cannot agree with Mr. Salvin in granting specific rank to this form, as I find 

 that though, as a rule, the southern birds are, as stated by him, paler and browner on the upper 

 parts, and have the flanks and under tail-coverts browner, yet the differences are very slight 

 indeed ; and I find specimens from the Mediterranean which I cannot separate from Puffinus 

 anglorum, and others from Great Britain which are undistinguishable from examples obtained 

 in the Bosphorus. 



I possess a single egg of Gould's Shearwater, taken by Don Ramon Gomez at Santa Ursula, 



