110 AI.fiKRIAN C'TXKHKOUS SIIEARWATEK. 



Specific Characterx. — Upper plumage dark brown; lower plumage 

 pure wliite, with the sides of the neck mottled with grey brown; 

 upper tail coverts light brown, tipped with mottled grey. Length 

 nineteen inches; carpus to tip thirteen inches and a half; beak 

 from gape two inches and a half ; depth at base, including nostrils, 

 three quarters of an inch, in middle seven lines; tarsus two 

 inches and a fifth; middle toe two inches and seven tenths. 



There has been a good deal of confusion among 

 the Shearwaters, which seems to have arisen from the 

 general resemblance to each other of some of the 

 species, and their sexual differences. Of the Cinereous 

 Shearwaters there are three which have been more or 

 less thus mixed up — the subject of the present notice, 

 P. major, and P. fidiginosa. It is the latter which 

 has been taken frequently in the British Isles, and 

 from its resemblance to P. cinereus, it has generally 

 been described and figured as that bird, although 

 distinguished from it by its smaller size and more 

 slender beak. On the other hand, P. major has been 

 taken in Great Britain, and has been figured as P. 

 cinereus by Selby and Gould. Mr. Yarrell figures 

 the bird correctly enough, from specimens sent to him 

 by Mr. Mitchell, of Penzance, but in his description 

 he says that he never saw a specimen of P. major 

 which exceeded eighteen inches in length, which 

 creates the suspicion of a farther mistake, as P. major 

 of Faber, the bird which I shall figure and notice 

 next, is upwards of nineteen inches in length, — Degland 

 says upwards of twenty-four inches. 



As it is impossible without comparison to form a 

 correct opinion upon the subject, I will figure an 

 undoubted specimen of P. cinereus of Cuvier, and also 

 one of P. major of Faber; leaving the question whether 



