THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SHEARWATER. 425 



especially brownish on nape and upper-mantle (feathers when fresh 

 very rich black-brown with paler tips, when worn darker brown) ; 

 sides of neck pale sooty-brown, feathers having long sooty-brown 

 tips and white bases ; sides of throat sometimes mostly pale sooty- 

 brown as sides of neck but usually feathers are white with narrow 

 crescentic subterminal bars giving a finely mottled appearance, 

 usually centre of chin and throat white but sometimes mottled as 

 sides ; sides of breast and flanks sooty-brown extending consider- 

 ably on to belly and more or less on to sides of body, centre of 

 breast sometimes pure white but feathers usually with some brown 

 dusting or tips and sometimes shafts brown ; vent and under tail- 

 co verts sooty -brown, feathers with paler, sometimes almost whitish, 

 bases and when fresh with faint whitish tips ; axillaries sooty-brown, 

 paler or whitish at extreme base ; under wing -coverts as P. p. 

 pufjinus but with browner and less black markings ; wings and tail 

 browner not so black as in P. p. pufjinus. This plumage is acquired 

 by complete moult Aug.-Sept. N.B. — As compared with P. p. 

 yelkouan rather browner on upper-parts ; considerably more brown 

 on flanks, axillaries, vent, and under tail-coverts ; throat, breast 

 and belly mottled and dusted brown and not pure white except 

 sometimes down centre. 



Measurements and structure. — q wing 235-253 mm., tail 70-77, 

 tarsus 47-51, middle toe with claw 50-57, bill from feathers 37-41 

 (5 measured). 9 unsexed examples measure : wing 234-255, tail 

 68-77, tarsus 44-51, middle toe 51-56, bill 37-39. Structure as in 

 Manx Shearwater. 



Breeding-habits. — No definite information on breeding -habits 

 of this race, but probably habits similar to those of P. p. yelkouan, 

 breeding in holes and under boulders and laying one white egg. 

 66 eggs of P. p. yelkouan average 57.2x40.5 mm. Breeding -season. 

 — Probably end March and early April. Single brooded. 



Food. — No definite information. Levantine Shearwater said to eat 

 leaves of Inula crithmoides. 



Distribution. — Great Britain. — Vagrant. Nineteen recorded off 

 coast Yorks., one Northumberland, two Norfolk, one Kent, one 

 Hants., three Devon, and one Firth of Forth. Most Sept., some 

 Aug., one Oct., and one Feb. (cf. Saunders, p. 742, and Brit. B., 

 n, pp. 137, 206, 313, 372 ; ni, p. 295 ; vi, p. 227). All the above with 

 the exception of 10 from Yorks. and one from Hants., which have 

 not been examined, have been determined as of this form and not 

 P. p. yelkouan (see Brit. B., xv, pp. 151-3). 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Western Mediterranean (exact limits not 

 yet known), casually (out of breeding-season) as far north as 

 North Sea. A closely allied subspecies in middle and east Mediter- 

 ranean. 



