THE MEDITERRANEAN GREAT SHEARWATER. 431 



Breeding-habits. — Almost unknown. Only known eggs taken on 

 Inaccessible Island, Tristan d'Acunha group, but no details given. 

 Egg. — One only, white, unmarked. Average of 5 eggs, 76.2 X 48.2. 

 Max.: 81x49.1 and 78.5 x 51. Min. : 70.3x46.9 and 71.6x44.3 

 mm. Breeding -season. — One egg dated May 29. Incubation. — No 

 details. 



Food. — Chiefly Cephalopoda (cuttle-fish), but also captured on 

 baited hooks and will take refuse from fishing boats. 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Autumn -visitor. Most frequent 

 and regular off coasts of south-west England, western isles Scotland, 

 and south and west coasts Ireland. Fairly frequent off Yorks. 

 coast, but seldom noticed elsewhere on east coast. Very seldom 

 near land. Often in flocks and generally seen Aug. to Nov., but not 

 infrequently late June and July. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Atlantic Ocean from Arctic Circle ' to 

 S. Africa and Cape Horn. Only known with certainty to breed in 

 Tristan d'Acunha group, but probably nests in other localities in 

 Southern Hemisphere. During southern winter to N. Atlantic as 

 far as Canaries, Madeira, Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland, Newfound- 

 land ; Holland (once). 



PUFFINUS KUHLII 



342. Puffinus kuhlii kuhlii (Boie)— THE MEDITERRANEAN 

 GREAT SHEARWATER. 



Procellaria kuhlii Boie, Isis, 1835, p. 257 (Corsica). 



Puffinus kuhlii (Boie),. W. R. Butterfield, Bull. B.O.C., xvi, p. 71 ; 



Saunders, Brit. B., i, p. 16. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter and summer. — 

 Crown, nape, and hind-neck greyish sooty-brown, usually one or 

 two white feathers on crown ; feathers of mantle and back darker 

 sooty-brown with broad grey-brown fringes and when fresh with 

 narrow greyish -white fringes at extreme tip ; scapulars darker 

 brown tinged grey and narrowly tipped pale brown or whitish ; 

 rump and shorter upper tail -coverts dark sooty- brown broadly 

 fringed grey-brown, lower upper tail-coverts dark sooty-brown 

 with long tips and varying amount of outer webs white mottled 

 brown ; fore -head, lores, round anterior half of eye and base of 

 lower mandible grey-brown, feathers narrowly edged greyish-white 

 giving a mottled appearance ; down sides of chin and throat 

 extending on to sides of neck feathers with their bases white and 

 distal halves finely barred grey-brown and white giving a finely 

 barred or mottled appearance (mottling sometimes extending 

 across chin) ; sides of breast and flanks white with some pale 

 brown barring, small patch of feathers on lower-flanks and some 

 lateral under tail-coverts with varying amount of brown mottling 

 and barring, especially on outer webs which are occasionally mostly 

 brown ; centre of throat, rest of under -parts white ; axillaries 



