PUFFINUS BAILLONI. 



present I follow those ornithologists who have recognised the name of P. bailloni for the 

 Madeiran species. 



This small Shearwater is an inhabitant of Madeira, the Canaries, and the Rombos 

 Islands, in the Cape Verde Archipelago, where Lieutenant Boyd Alexander found it 

 breeding in March. In Santiago, Mozos and Fogo, islands of the same group, it has been 

 found by Signor Fea. Captain Savile Reid records it from Tenerife, and says that it 

 undoubtedly breeds on the detached islands to the westward (Ibis, 1888, p. 81). On 

 the little island of Graciosa, in the Canaries, Mr. Meade- Waldo found it nesting earlier 

 than the other Petrels, eggs being discovered at the end of February and the beginning 

 of March (Ibis, 1890, p. 437). Mr. Ogilvie-Grant visited the island of Deserta Grande 

 on the 4th of May, 1890, and captured a single female of this species, which had not 

 bred. This he thought to be somewhat remarkable since, at Porto Santo, only some 

 forty miles distant, some of the young birds were even then in nearly adult plumage 

 (Ibis, 1890, p. 444). 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, however, in a subsequent note (Ibis, 1891, p. 469), states that 

 Salvin had drawn his attention to the possibility of the small Shearwaters of the 

 Deserta Grande and Porto Santo Islands being in reality of two different species. On 

 re-examining his specimens, Mr. Ogilvie-Grant came to the conclusion that the Porto 

 Santo birds were P. obscurus, while those from Deserta Grande were P. assimilis, and 

 thus the difference in the time of nesting might be accounted for. 



On Great Salvage Island he procured several specimens, both adult and young, 

 as well as an egg of this Shearwater (Ibis, 1896, p. 50). The birds which he formerly 

 supposed to be P. obscurus, Mr. Ogilvie-Grant now considers to be the young of 

 P. assimilis, and he believes that this species only inhabits Porto Santo, Lime Island, 

 and Great Salvage Island. He saw a dozen adult birds in Padre Schmitz's Collection 

 from Porto Santo, all of which he identified as P. assimilis. 



I have examined the series obtained by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, as above recorded, 

 and I recognise the variation in the shade of the quill-lining, some of the birds 

 having the inner webs of the primaries ashy-white but never approaching the 

 pure white quill-hning of the true P. assimilis. As, however, the principal 

 character of P. bailloni, the black edging to the lateral under tail-coverts, never 

 fails, I consider that all the birds of the North Atlantic islands are P. bailloni, 

 and the lighter or darker quill-Uning is due to the wear and tear of the 

 plumage. 



When I visited the Azores in May, 1865, 1 heard of a Petrel, on the island of Flores, 

 which could only have been P. bailloni. It was called " Frulho," and was said to arrive 

 about the month of March, and to breed in the cliffs ; it had reared its young and gone 

 again before I reached Flores, nor did I obtain or see a specimen ; neither did I hear 

 of it on the other islands (Ibis, 1866, p. 104). Mr. Ogilvie-Grant met with this 

 Shearwater on Pray a Island, near Graciosa. Major Chaves told him that it was not 



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