41. PUFFINUS PERSICUS, Hume. 



(PERSIAN SHEARWATER.) 

 (Plate 33.) 



Puffinus sp., Heuglin, Ibis, 1859, p. 349. 



Puffinus persicus, Hume, Stray F., I., p. 5 (1873), VIII., p. 115 (1879) ; Butler, Stray 

 F., V., pp. 285, 292 (1877) ; Barnes, Ibis, 1893, p. 175 ; Salvin, Cat. Birds 

 Brit. Mus., XXV., p. 381, PI. IV. (1896) ; Yerbury, Ibis, 1896, p. 37 ; Blanf., 

 Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, IV., p. 356 (1898) ; Reichenow, Vog. Afrikas, I., 

 p. 30 (1900). 



Puffinus obscurus (nee Gm.), Blanf., Ibis, 1873, p. 215 ; id., Geol. and Zool. Persia, II., 

 p. 295 (1876). 



P. gavice similis, sed gutture pure albo, minime fusco marmorato, et hypochondriis 

 late nigro striatis, distinguendus. 



Though closely allied to Puffinus gavia, the Persian Shearwater is easily distinguished 

 by its blacker upper-surface, and by the clearly defined line of the white on the sides 

 of the throat, thus differing from P. gavia, in which the mottling sometimes extends 

 across the throat. In P. persicus the under tail-coverts are white, with the long lateral 

 feathers blackish ; in P. gavia these are entirely white, or with only a little dusky 

 edging to the long feathers. The axillaries of P. persicus are smoky-black, and 

 slightly paler in those of P. gavia. 



P. persicus can be at once separated from P. obscurus by the larger size of its bill. 

 It was described by Mr. A. 0. Hume from a female obtained at sea between Gwadar and 

 Muscat on the 21st of February, 1872, and others were also observed on the Arabian 

 coast. Colonel Butler found it abundant on the Mekran coast, where he obtained a 

 female in 1877, and he also noticed the species 120 miles further up the Persian Gulf, 

 while Lieutenant Barnes (I.e.) says that it is not uncommon near Aden. 

 Blanford states that it is frequent on the coasts of Sind and Baluchistan, and in 

 the Arabian Sea from Bombay to Aden (Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, IV., p. 357). 

 In 1859 the late Baron von Heuglin recorded a Shearwater, which was 

 probably P. persicus, from off the coast of Somaliland. He says that it 



124 



