50. PUFFINUS NATIYITATIS, Streets. 



(CHRISTMAS ISLAND SHEARWATER.) 

 (Plate 40.) 



Pufflnus (Nectris) nativitatis, Streets, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 7, p. 29 (1877). 



Pufpnus nativitatis, Ridgw., Man. N. Anier. Birds, p. 62 (1887) ; Lister, P. Z. S., 1891, 

 pp. 295, 300 ; Wiglesw., Abhandl. K. Mus., Dresden, 1890-91, No. 6, p. 81 

 (1891); Salvia, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXV., p. 389 (1896); Rothsch., 

 Avif. Laysan, L, p. 45, PL 28 (1893) ; Oates, Cat. Eggs Brit. Mus., I., p. 156 

 (1901) ; W. K. Fisher, Auk, 1903, p. 386. 



P. tenuirostri similis, sed minor : subtus fuliginoso-niger : subalaribus et axillaribus 

 dorso concoloribus, fuliginoso-nigris, minime grisescentibus vel albicanti-griseis. 



Pufflnus nativitatis, although allied to P. tenuirostris, is much smaller, and differs 

 in colour, being of a dark sooty-brown below, almost chocolate in tint, from the base 

 of the bill to the under tail-coverts, and showing no sign of white or grey on the throat. 

 P. tenuirostris is paler below, being somewhat grey, and having the under wing-coverts 

 silvery or ashy-grey, with the quill-hning pale ashy-grey. The throat is also 

 whitish-grey. 



In P. nativitatis the under wing-coverts are uniform sooty-black, not of the same 

 sooty-brown colour as the breast, but darker, and resembling the back. 



The species was first described by Mr. Streets from Christmas Island, in the Pacific, 

 in 1877. It was afterwards met with in the Phoenix Group, on Phoenix and Canton 

 Islands, by Mr. J. J. Lister. In the spring of 1883, Mr. H. J. Snow obtained specimens 

 on Krusenstern Island, in the Marshall Group (Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXV., 

 p. 389). 



In the collection of the Hon. Walter Rothschild are three examples from Laysan 

 Island, procured by Dr. Schauinsland, and the first illustration of the species appears 

 in Mr. Rothschild's work, the " Avifauna of Laysan " (I., p. 45, PL 28). Mr. Walter 

 K. Fisher, who visited this archipelago in 1902, found this Shearwater very common 

 there {Auk, 1903, p. 386). 



Mr. Beck obtained an example (now in the Rothschild Collection) at sea, in Lat. 



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