40. PUFFINUS GAVIA {Forster). 



(FORSTER'S SHEARWATER.) 



(Plate 32.) 



Procellaria gavia, Forster, Descr. Anim., ed. Licht., 1844, p. 148 ; Gray, Ibis, 1862, 



p. 246. 

 Mstrelata gavia, Coues, Pr. Acad. Philad., 1866, pp. 154, 171. 

 Puffinus gavia, Hutton, Ibis, 1867, p. 189 ; Buller, Birds New Zeal., p. 318 (1873) ; 



2nd ed„ II., p. 236 (1888) ; Suppl. L, p. 99 (1905) ; Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. 



Mus., XXV., p. 381 (1896). 

 Puffinus opisthomelas (nee Coues), Finsch, J. f. 0., 1870, p. 371. 

 Fulmarus gavia, Gray, Handl. Birds, III., p. 107 (1871). 

 Puffinus gavius, Hutton, Ibis, 1874, p. 42. 



Minor : cauda brevi, rotundata : ala 8.5-9.0 poll. : subtus albus : axillaribus fumoso- 

 brunneis : subcaudalibus albis, lateralibus apicem versus cinerascentibus. 



This is one of the most distinct members of the small group to which it belongs. 

 It has a wing of from 7.9-9.0 inches in length, and must therefore be referred to the 

 section of P. obscurus. 



P. gavia is to be recognised from the nearly allied species by its sooty-brown 

 axillaries, and from P. persicus and P. subalaris, which it resembles in this respect, 

 by its pure white under tail-coverts. 



Forster's Shearwater was discovered in Queen Charlotte's Sound, New Zealand, 

 during the voyages of Captain Cook, but was not described until 1844, nor was it 

 figured in the celebrated series of " drawings " made during Captain Cook's voyages 

 by George Forster. I have, however, little doubt that the species which is now known 

 as P. gavia is that which Johann Reinhold Forster described in the notes which were 

 edited and published by Professor Heinrich Lichtenstein in 1844. 



It is an inhabitant of the New Zealand seas, where Sir Walter Buller records 

 it as comparatively common, being frequently picked up dead, or in an exhausted 

 condition, in the sea-drift on the open strand. In this way he procured many fine 

 specimens on the northern shore of Cook's Strait ; and the various local museums 



120 



