* 



, is i»-: 



Order PEOCELLAEIIFORMES.] 



[Family PUFFINIDiE. 



PUFFINUS BULLE1U 



(BULLEE'S SHEAEWATEE.) 



Puffinus bulled, Salvia; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 240. 



The Petrel described by Mr. Sandager under the name of Puffinus zealandicus (' Transactions of 

 the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xxii., p. 291) was, until lately, deposited in the Otago Museum. It 

 is undoubtedly the same species as that described by Mr. Salvin under the above name. It would 

 seem to be a somewhat rare form in New Zealand seas, for, up to the present time, only four 

 examples are known, one of which is in the cabinet collection in the British Museum. Of the 

 other three, one is in the Tring Museum, another in the Colonial Museum at Wellington, and the 

 third, being the example described by Mr. Sandager, is in the author's collection. In the ' Birds 

 of New Zealand ' (2nd ed.) this Petrel and (Estrelata gularis are figured together on the same 

 plate, and, with the rock background, they form a very effective picture. My original 

 specimen was a storm-tossed one on the Waikanae beach, in October, 1884 : Mr. Sandager's 

 bird flew against the lantern of a lighthouse; and the British Museum specimen was 

 purchased by Mr. Salvin from a dealer who said it had been obtained on the New Zealand 

 coast. 



A specimen brought from the Mokohinu Islands by Captain Fairchild in September, 

 and presented by him (in spirits) to the Colonial Museum, has enabled me to describe the soft 

 parts : sides of the bill greenish, the ridge and hook brownish-black ; feet yellow, the outer side 

 of the tarsi and outer toes, and a line along the base of the middle toe on its outer side, blackish- 

 brown. The bird proved to be a male, and the greenish colour of the bill is probably a sexual 

 character, because there was no such appearance with my specimen (a female), although it was 

 picked up fresh on the Waikanae sands. Mr. Sandager, in his description of Puffinus zealandicus, 

 which I have identified with this species, says that " the lower part of both mandibles is 

 bluish, remainder black." 



I may here correct a common error among local ornithologists— that of confounding Puffinus 

 with Puffin, the two birds having no relation whatever to each other. The principal offender in 

 this respect is Mr. Eeischek, who has contributed some interesting notes on the various species of 

 Puffinus to the pages of our ' Transactions,' and persistently calls them "Puffins." Professor 

 Newton, in his admirable ' Dictionary of Birds '—a book which should be on every ornithologist's 

 shelves— gives the following explanation of this popular mistake : " The name ' Puffin ' has been 

 given in books to one of the Shearwaters, and its latinised form Puffinus is still used in that sense 

 in scientific nomenclature. This fact seems to have arisen from a mistake of Kay's, who, seeing 

 in Tradescant's Museum and that of the Koyal Society some young Shearwaters from the Isle of 

 Man, prepared in like manner to young Puffins, thought they were the birds mentioned by 

 Gesner ('Hist. Avium'), as the remarks inserted in Wlloughby's ' Ornithologia ' (p. 251) 

 prove; for the specimens described by Kay were as clearly Shearwaters as Gesner's were 



Puffins." 



In January, 1896, off Cape Kidnappers, about 10 o'clock in the morning, I saw a Petrel 

 hovering quickly over the surface of the water, which, as well as I could make out, was Puffinus 

 butteri, & The dark mark on the wings was conspicuous, the colours were those of that species, 

 and the bird's elongated form seemed to make the identification complete. It kept near the water 

 till it was out of sight. 



