33. PUFFINUS CREATOPUS, Cows. 



(PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER.) 



(Plate 27.) 



Puffinus creatopus, Coues, Pr. Acad. Philad., 1864, pp. 131, 144, 1866, p. 192 ; Baird, 

 Brewer, and Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amer., II., p. 383 (1884) ; Salvin, 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXV., p. 376 (1896). 



Cauda rotundata, vix cuneata, rectricibus centralibus 4.4-4.65 poll. ; notaeo brunneo, 

 fere concolori : subcaudalibus saturate fumoso-brunneis : colli lateribus cinerascenti- 

 brunneo marmoratis. 



Puffinus creatopus is the Pacific representative of P. kuhli. It is a large species, having a 

 wing from 12.2-13.0 inches in length, and is distinguished from P. kuhli by the black tip 

 to the bill and the general sooty colour of the axillaries and under tail-coverts. The 

 upper-surface is nearly uniform brown, with the light edgings to the dorsal feathers 

 scarcely distinguishable ; the upper tail-coverts are also uniform dark brown, without 

 any white margins, as in P. kuhli. 



This Shearwater, moreover, differs from all its allies in the colour of the under 

 tail-coverts, which are sooty-brown, not white. The axillaries in P. creatopus are also 

 sooty or lavender-brown, sometimes with white bases, and occasionally with white tips, 

 the latter often mottled with dusky brown or with dusky shaft-lines. In P. kuhli 

 and P. edwardsi the axillaries are white. 



The species was first described by the late Dr. Elliot Coues, from a specimen 

 procured by Dr. Cooper on San Nicholas Island, off California. An example from the 

 vicinity of Monterey, obtained by Mr. Alvin Seale in June, is in the British Museum ; 

 and others from the same locality, procured by Mr. Maillard in August, are in the 

 Rothschild Collection. Mr. Loomis, in his essay on the " Water Birds of California " 

 (Pr. Calif. Acad. Sci. (2), V., p. 216, 1895), says that the Pink-footed Shearwater 

 was observed off Monterey as a passing migrant in August, but was not abundant, the 

 first bird being observed on the 31st of July. Mr. Grinnell states that several Shear- 

 waters seen between Catalina and Santa Barbara Islands in the spring of 1897, were 

 believed to be P. creatopus (Publ. Pasadena Acad., L, p. 24, 1897). 



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