470 
Manx Shearwater {Paffinus anglorum). 
Two Norfolk specimens, stuffed from the flesh (sex not noted). 
Total length - 
154 in.* 
- 
144 in. 
Beak ... 
in. 
- 
1 4 in. 
Carpal joint to end of longest primary 
9f in.t 
- 
9|in. 
Tarsus . . . 
l^in. 
- 
1| in. (full) 
Middle toe and claw - 
2 in. 
- 
2 in. 
The discrepancies apparent in the measurements here given 
(though as to length only) in but two examples of each of these allied 
species, may well account for the exclusion by some recent authors 
of Puffinus obscurus from the British list, in the absence of un- 
doubted local specimens ; but it should also be noticed that, except 
as to length, there is an exact co-incidence, inter se, in the 
measurement of these two examples of P. obscurus and P, anglorum; 
-whilst the difference in length in the case of P. obscurus 
amounting to rather over an inch, and in P. anglorum to an inch 
full, may be either sexual or accidental in the stuffing of the birds; 
yet Yarrell stated that, of six specimens examined of P, obscurus 
(whether stuffed or in skins is not stated) each measured eleven 
inches in length, and the wing six and three-quarter inches from 
carpal joint to end of longest primary. 
The Dusky Petrel, as Yarrell terms Pufuius obscurus, though I 
much prefer the word Shearwater for this particular group of 
oceanic birds, was included by him in the British list, from the 
fact of a single specimen having been taken, alive, on board a small 
sloop off the Island of Valentia, on the south-west coast of Ireland, 
late in the evening of the 11th of May, 1853. Yarrell says it was 
brought to him by B. Blackburn, Esq., of Valentia Harbour, in the 
county of Kerry, but does not state whether the bird had already 
been skinned, or was still in the flesh — an important point as regards 
measurements. 
Whether a bird taken on board a vessel off (and it is not related 
how many miles off) the south-west coast of Ireland, can entitle the 
species it represents to a place in the list of “ British Birds ” is, I 
think, much open to question, particularly as the bird was a captive 
when brought ashore, and of its own free will might never have 
* Yarrell gives 14 in. 
t Yarrell in. 
