The Slender-billed Shearwater 



Recognition Marks. — Size of the common griseus, but no white on wing-lining; 

 feet palest. Pale beak said by Loomis to be distinctive. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nests in colonies. Single egg pure 

 white, laid at end of burrow in sandy soil. Av. size 68.6 x 44.45 (2.70 x 1.75). Season: 

 November 20-December. 



General Range. — Australian and New Zealand seas north to Japan and Calif. 



Occurrence in California. — Of limited but apparently regular occurrence 

 as migrant and forager off-shore, at all seasons but perhaps less commonly in winter. 

 Associates closely with P. griseus. 



Authorities. — Beck {Puffinus carneipes), Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 4, vol. iii., 

 1910, p. 66 (Monterey) ; Grinnett, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 27 (Monterey); 

 Loomis, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 4, vol. ii., pt. 2, no. 12, 1918, p. 129 (syst. ; Calif, 

 occurrences, etc.). 



IN THE "good old days" any fat squab haled from its subterranean 

 cradle by a hungry fisherman was dubbed a puffin, in honor of its heavy 

 coat of down and consequent puffy appearance. All babies look alike (at 

 least so bachelors say), and we cannot blame the unlettered Manxman 

 for confusing two sooty balls of down which he found in adjoining bur- 

 rows. But the scientist who suffered one bird (Fratercula arctica) to be 

 called Puffin; and then gravely latinized the fisherman's nickname as 

 Puffinus puffinus, to serve as the "imperishable designation" of the Manx 

 Shearwater, wrought imperishable confusion thereby. 



But the poor "scientist" is often hard put to it, especially when 

 he doesn't know anything about the bird in life. Take this Shear- 

 water, for instance, Puffinus carneipes, — I don't know anything about 

 it. Call it "Pink-footed," as Salvin does; or "Flesh-footed," as Beck 

 does; or "Pale-footed," as the A. O. U. Committee recommends. Or, 

 if the gentle bird will permit the gentle reader to hold its hand (foot), 

 he may have a try at it himself. 



Rollo H. Beck dragged this bird from its comfortable obscurity 

 (where it had doubtless reposed, seasonably, for a millennium) off Point 

 Pinos, on the 23rd of November, 1903. He dragged it out ten times 

 (at least — see specimens in the California Academy of Sciences and in 

 the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology), and pretty well established thereby 

 that out of every thousand Shearwaters shot off Monterey, one or two will 

 be "Pale-footed," — or "Flesh-footed," as you prefer. 



No. 409 



Slender-billed Shearwater 



A. O. U. No. 96. Puffinus tenuirostris (Temminck). 



Synonyms. — Short-tailed Shearwater. "Mutton-bird" (par excellence). 

 Description. — Adults: General plumage sooty black, varied slightly by brown- 

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