MONOGRAPH OF THE PETRELS. 



That the breeding-place of P. gravis must be sought for in southern latitudes can 

 scarcely be doubted, and that it likewise nests there during our winter, and returns 

 north during our summer, is also most probable, but the evidence is not yet entirely 

 satisfactory. The fact of the birds being seen in pairs by Mr. Nicoll, does not, under 

 the circumstances, count for much, as this habit has also been noted in northern seas. 

 From our present knowledge, however, I am inclined to agree with Mr. Howard 

 Saunders and Mr. Dresser, that we have no trustworthy evidence of the nesting of 

 the Great Shearwater in northern latitudes, and that the nestlings in the British 

 Museum from the Orkneys, labelled P. cinereus (i.e., P. gravis), are not referable to 

 that species, but to P. anglorum (Gray, Cat. Brit. Birds, p. 223, 1863). 



Many naturalists have observed this species on the Atlantic, and all agree that 

 it is a bird of powerful flight. When fishing, it is said to strike the water with great 

 violence, and this peculiarity has been noticed by Captain J. W. Collings, and also 

 by Mr. R. Warren and Mr. Eagle Clarke. Professor Newton, however, says that, 

 though he observed this Shearwater in large numbers, while cruising among the 

 Western Hebrides in 1894 and 1895, the birds were usually sitting on the water in pairs, 

 and none were seen to dive. 



Audubon relates that two birds which had been caught with hooks walked about 

 like Ducks, and, when approached, would open their bills and emit through their 

 nostrils an oily substance. When held in the hand they continued to do this, at the 

 same time scratching with their sharp claws and bills. They refused all food, and, 

 being unpleasant pets, were set at liberty, when, instead of flying away directly, they 

 plunged into the water, splashing and diving about before they took to their wings. 

 In the stomachs of those he examined, Audubon found portions of fish, crabs, seaweed, 

 and oily substances. 



Adult. General colour above sooty-brown, all the feathers rather broadly 

 margined with paler and more ashy-brown, some of these margins whiter on the 

 scapulars and inner secondaries ; upper tail-coverts like the back, the longer ones white 

 or tipped with white, forming a band ; quills and tail black ; crown of head and 

 hind-neck uniform sooty-brown, the latter encroached upon by the white sides 

 of the neck, with a few faint mottlings of brown where the white meets the brown of 

 the hind-neck ; lores, sides of face, and ear-coverts, sooty-brown, with a slight mottling 

 of hoary-white in front of the eye and below the latter ; cheeks white, well-defined in a 

 line from the dark ear-coverts and lores ; entire under-surface of body white, the 

 centre of the lower breast and abdomen mottled with pale ashy-brown tips to the 

 feathers ; sides of the fore-neck ashy-brown, most of the feathers broadly edged with 

 white ; on the sides of the chest a few brown bars, corresponding to the colour of the 

 axillaries, which are white, with conspicuous sub-terminal spots of ashy-brown ; under 

 wing-coverts white, with distinct longitudinal centres of sooty-brown, the small coverts 

 round the bend of the wing mostly of the latter colour ; quills dusky-brown below, with 



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