440 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



at base of neck and forming a patch on each side of upper-breast 

 and sometimes almost a band, feathers in centre being usually 

 finely and closely freckled ; chin and throat white, finely freckled 

 grey -brown on sides and at base where it joins black-brown ; rest 

 of breast, belly, under tail -coverts and flanks white with varying 

 amount of fine brown-grey freckling at tips of feathers ; sometimes 

 this is confined to flanks and lateral under tail -coverts but at others 

 extends all over under-parts ; axillaries mostly white, often with 

 some fine grey-brown freckling ; under wing-coverts with a broad 

 band round edge of wing black-brown somewhat tipped and mottled 

 grey, rest of under wing-coverts including those covering primaries 

 white sometimes slightly freckled brown-grey ; tail-feathers grey- 

 brown, central ones darker, outer ones more washed grey, and when 

 fresh two outermost narrowly tipped white and with inner webs 

 finely mottled white ; primaries black on outer, grey-brown on 

 inner webs which have narrow greyish-white edging ; secondaries 

 and outermost greater coverts with outer webs washed grey and very 

 narrowly margined white, inner webs pale brown becoming whitish 

 at base ; innermost secondaries, rest of greater coverts as well as 

 all rest of coverts black-brown but innermost lesser with ash-grey 

 tips. The British example taken end Nov. or early Dec. was in 

 full moult. Loomis states * that 8 taken about 200 miles S.S.W. of 

 the Galapagos in June were undergoing a complete moult. 



Nestling. — " Covered with black down " (MacGillivray f ). 



Measurements and structure. — £ wing 210-220 mm., tail 

 97-103, tarsus 25-28, middle toe with claw 31-35, bill from feathers 

 22.5-24 (5 measured). ? wing 205-223, tail 94-99, tarsus 26-31, 

 bill 22-26 (3 measured). Primaries : 1st narrow, pointed and 

 hidden by primary-coverts, 2nd longest, 3rd 3-4 mm. shorter, 

 4th 11-16 shorter, 5th 23-30 shorter, 6th 38-46 shorter. Rest of 

 structure as P. neglecta, but tail much graduated, tips sharply 

 rounded, central pair longest, rest graduated and outermost 25 to 

 30 mm. shorter than central. 



Soft parts. — Bill black ; tarsus fleshy-black, toes and webs 

 (except basal portion of latter which are flesh) black (MacGillivray) ; 

 iris dark brown. 



Characters. — No subspecies, but other species are nearly allied. 



P. mollis few (Madeira, Cape Verde) is larger with a stouter bill, 



has more uniform upper-parts, whiter under-parts and darker under 



wing-coverts. 



Breeding-habits. — Formerly bred in burrows in mountains at an 



elevation of 2700 ft., but no recent details of nesting-habits or 



eggs are known. 



Food. — No definite records. 



Distribution. — Wales. — One. Shot between Borth and Aberys- 



* L. M. Loomis, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 4th Series, vol. n, pt. n, p. 93. 

 f J. MacGillivray, loc. cit. 



