MONOGRAPH OF THE PETRELS. 



recorded as P. anglorum or P. baroli from the Eastern Mediterranean are now acknow- 

 ledged to be P. yelkouanus. That the species sometimes wanders north from the 

 Mediterranean is proved by its occurrence in the seas south and east of Britain. 

 Specimens procured in August from Torbay and Plymouth Sound are in the British 

 Museum (Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXV., p. 380). One obtained off Bridlington 

 Quay in October, 1898, is recorded by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe {Bull. B. 0. C, X., p. 

 xlviii., 1900), and another from Scarborough (February 5th, 1899) by Mr. Howard 

 Saunders {Bull. B. 0. C, VIII., p. xxix., 1899). 



The name " yelkouan," bestowed on this species by Acerbi, is Turkish, and signifies 

 " the bird of the wind." Dr. Dickson, a good authority, says that the name should 

 rightly be " Yel-Kovan " {lit. " Wind-driver "). Of. Sclater, " Ibis," 1876, p. 61. 



From the few notes published on the habits of the Levantine Shearwater, it is 

 evident that they resemble those of the northern P. anglorum and other species of the 

 genus. Mr. John Whitehead discovered the birds nesting on the small islands off the 

 coast of Corsica. On the 2nd of May, with the aid of a small dog, he obtained eight 

 separate eggs, all of which were placed under piles of large rocks, which had fallen from 

 the high cliff above. The nests were situated only a few feet from high-water mark, 

 whereas the large Mediterranean Shearwater {P. kuhli) breeds under single rocks at 

 some distance from the water {Ibis, 1885, p. 48). 



An egg procured by Mr. Whitehead, and presented by him to the British Museum, 

 is white, and measures : Axis, 2.35 inches ; diam., 1.65. 



P. yelkouanus is the Mediterranean representative of P. anglorum, but is browner 

 on the upper-surface, and is distinguished by its brown under tail-coverts, and by the 

 brown colour of the flanks. This brown shade sometimes extends over the sides of the 

 body and abdomen, and occasionally over the whole under-surface, as seen in a specimen 

 from Malaga in the Howard Saunders Collection, and in others from the Mediterranean 

 examined by me. The axillaries are also brown, or ashy-brown, with white bases, 

 but occasionally they are white, mottled with brown. In P. anglorum the 

 axillaries are white, with a sub-terminal black tip, but so much variation takes place 

 in the dusky mottling of the under tail-coverts and sides of the body that the two 

 species somewhat intergrade. 



In a specimen obtained off the Algerian coast on the 24th of February, 1873, 

 Captain G. E. Shelley records the soft parts as follows : " Legs fleshy white ; outside 

 of tarsus, outside of outer toe and nails, black ; bill black, shaded with fleshy white 

 on the lower mandible below ; iris brownish black." Mr. C. G. Danford records 

 specimens from Vourla Bay, in Asia Minor, as having the bill " pinkish or fleshy black ; 

 legs flesh-colour, the outer toe darker, like the bill." 



The birds described are in the British Museum. The figure in the Plate is drawn 

 from the specimen obtained by Mr. J. E. Harting, at Torbay, in Devonshire, in August, 

 1875, and now in our own collection. 



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