Family PUFFINID^E. 



THE GREAT SHEARWATER. 



Puffinus gravis, O'Reilly. 

 Plate 79. 



The Great Shearwater visits the British Islands more or less regularly in 

 autumn, when it is sometimes abundant off the southern and western coasts. 

 According to the B.O.U. List of British Birds, 2nd ed. p. 287, "The only known 

 breeding station of the Greater Shearwater is Tristan da Cunha, but it probably 

 nests on other islands of the Southern Atlantic. It ranges over the Atlantic Ocean, 

 from Southern Greenland, Iceland, and the Faeroes southwards to the Falkland 

 Islands and the Cape of Good Hope." The late H. E. Dresser states {Eggs of the 

 Birds of Europe) that the egg of this species is unknown. 



The food consists of small cuttle-fish, etc., and oily animal substances obtained 

 in the sea, over whose waves the Shearwater glides in long undulating curves, and 

 from this peculiar style of flight the bird and its relations have taken their name. 



The Mediterranean Great Shearwater, Puffinus Ktihli (Boie), a larger bird than 

 ours, with a yellow bill and lighter in the colour of the upper plumage, and inhabit- 

 ing the Mediterranean and Atlantic, has occurred once in the British Islands, viz. 

 at Pevensey, Sussex, in December 1906. 



The Mediterranean species breeds in crannies and in holes in cliffs, and is said 

 to lay one white egg. 



THE SOOTY SHEARWATER. 



Puffinus griseus (J. F. Gmelin). 

 Plate 79. 



This species is occasionally seen off our coasts in autumn. 



During the breeding season it inhabits the Southern Hemisphere, afterwards 

 migrating northwards, when it roams as far as North America and the shores of 

 Europe. It nests in burrows, lays a single white egg, and in its habits does not 

 appear to differ from its near relatives. 



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