Miscellaneous i 



433 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

 Note on Puffinus major, Faber. Greater Shearwater. By W. Thomp- 

 son, Esq. 



In June 1837 I exhibited, at a meeting of the Zoological Society, 

 an example of a shearwater which had been obtained in Ireland, and 

 applied to it the scientific appellation of Procellaria Puffinus, Linn, 

 (see Proceedings, 1837, p. 54). In the fourth part of the ' Manuel 

 d'Ornithologie/ p. 507, published in 1840, Temminck has shown that 

 this name has been applied to two species — the one frequenting the 

 more northern, the other the more southern seas of Europe. He re- 

 fers the only specimen recorded as having been obtained on the shores 

 of Great Britain, and figured by Mr. Selby, to the northern one, 

 P. major, Faber, and the object of the present communication is to 

 state that examples procured in Ireland are likewise identical with 

 it. Two or three species of Puffinus approach each other so nearly, 

 that from the descriptions alone I could hardly have spoken with 

 certainty as to this point ; but Temminck having referred to Mr. Sel- 

 by's plate of P. cinereus as representing P. major, Fab., enables me to 

 do so, as that plate is admirably characteristic of an Irish specimen 

 of the bird now before me*. This is the second obtained in Ireland, 

 and both by Mr. Robert Davis, jun., of Clonmel. This specimen 

 was received alive on the 19th September, 1839, by that gentleman, 

 who then informed me that " it was taken one or two miles outside 

 Dungarvan [co. Waterford], by a person fishing for hake [Merluc- 

 cius vulgaris'], with a hook and line, it having taken his bait. I kept 

 it alive for about a week, but not having a suitable place for that pur- 

 pose, killed it and set it up. As well as I can recollect the former 

 specimen, this resembled it in every respect. It was however more 

 lively, and ran along very rapidly with the breast about an inch and 

 a half from the ground. Having on one occasion put it on a roof, 

 it seemed to be more at ease on the inclined plane afforded by that 

 situation than on a flat surface ; it mounted rapidly to the top, though 

 when it came to the edge, no attempt to fly was made, and it fell 

 heavily to the ground. It rarely stirred at all during the day, but 

 kept itself as much concealed as possible, and if it could not hide its 

 body, would endeavour to conceal its head." After visiting Dun- 

 garvan in the summer of 1840, Mr. Davis wrote me to the following 

 effect : — " It would seem that some of my statements respecting the 

 first specimen are not correct [see Zoological Proceedings, as before 

 quoted] as regards its capture. The species is never met with near 

 the shore, but only far out, and is occasionally taken on the hook and 

 line employed in hake-fishing. The fishermen sometimes keep them 

 for weeks about their houses, and in some instances they have become 

 tame ; they never attempt to fly. A man had one a few days before 

 I went there, but had killed it with dogs on a piece of water. It 

 does not appear that the Manks shearwater is ever seen, nor could 



* Mr. Selby remarks that his specimen " appears to be a bird of the year ; " 

 so probably is the bird under consideration ; but the brief description of the 

 female given by Temminck equally applies to it. 



