291 



THE SOOTY SHEARWATER AT FLAMBOROUGH 



HEAD. 



JAMES BACKHOUSE, Jun., M.B.O.U., 

 York; Secretary of the Vertebrate Section of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union; and 

 Honorary Curator in Ornithology to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society's JSIuseiiin. 



I HAVE just examined a pair of undoubted Sooty Shearwaters 

 {Puffinus griseus) which were captured on the 2 3rd of August of this 

 year a mile and a half or so off Flamborough Head, and have been 

 beautifully preserved by Mr. Edward Allen, Feasegate, York. 



They are adult male and female, and agree very well with the 

 description given by Mr. Seebohm in his ' History of British Birds ' 

 (Vol. iii, p. 427), only that in the above-named specimens the back 

 and upper tail-coverts chiefly are marked with pale brown, and the 

 webs of the feet are distinctly flesh-coloured. 



According to Mr. Seebohm, Yorkshire can already boast of nine 

 specimens of this rare East Indian species, and how many more 

 there are which have been considered as examples of the Greater 

 Shearwater it is, of course, impossible to say. I notice that 

 Mr. Saunders says (Yarrell, 4th edition, vol. iv, p. 17), that the first 

 British specimen recorded was a Yorkshire one, shot at Boynton near 

 Bridlington, in 1828, and exhibited four years later by Mr. Arthur 

 Strickland, at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London. 



Mr. Saunders further remarks: — 'This specimen, which was 

 then identified with Puffinus fuligiiiosus Kuhl, was subsequently 

 figured on the same plate with an example of the Great Shearwater 

 {P. major) by Gould, in his ' Birds of Europe,' under the impression 

 that they belonged to the same species.' 



In the ' Strickland Collection ' of birds I found, the other day, a 

 case containing a veritable Sooty Shearwater and a Greater Shear- 

 water together — both under the one name of Greater Shearwater ! 



I naturally imagine that these specimens may be the identical 

 birds figured by Gould, but as there is absolutely no record with the 

 case, I have no means of discovering, and should, therefore, feel 

 greatly obliged if any of your readers can enlighten me. 



Whilst writing about Shearwaters, I should like to draw attention 

 to the numbers of Manx Shearw^aters {Puffinus angloruni), which 

 have been shot in the county during the past month. I have 

 seen a pair from Bridlington ; have another myself (very old bird 

 apparently) from Dunnington near York, and others also are reported 

 from the coast. In the Dunnington bird, the legs are flesh-coloured 

 on the inside and partly on the outside ; inner and middle toes 

 flesh-coloured ; irides very dark hazel. 



Oct. 1887. 



