164 
Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
not exceeding 9 inches in length. The primaries are wholly 
dark underneath. The upper surface is black, the axillaries 
white with a sul>terniinal black mark, and the flanks and 
under tail-coverts are mostly white. 
Range in Great Britain.— The Manx Shearwater is found in 
winter on most of our coasts, but breeds only in the Orkneys 
and Shetland Islands, the Hebrides, and in certain places on 
the west coast of England and Wales, as far south as the 
Scilly Isles. In Ireland, Mr. Ussher says that the species 
breeds on the headlands and islands of Donegal, Antrim, 
Dublin, Alicklow, Wexford, Kerry, and Mayo, and probably in 
other counties. ‘ ^ 
Range outside the British Islands.— I'he Manx Shearwater 
breeds in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Iceland and the 
haeroes, extending to the coast of Norway and south to 
Madeiia and the Canaries. On the American side it is also 
met with, and in winter extends south to the coasts of 
Brazil. 
_ Hahits. Saxby has given the following account of the bird 
ni his “Birds of Shetland”:— “This interesting bird, the 
Lyrie-bird of Orkney, usually arrives in Shetland at the end 
of April, or m the first days of May, and seems to lose no 
time m going to earth, being almost as truly a burrowina 
animal as any mole or rabbit. The earliest intimation of its 
arrival has repeatedly been brought to me by the folks who 
have taken it from the holes. Oddly enough, the fishermen, 
who have such abundant opportunities for observation, most 
positively assert that the bird is never seen abroad in the day- 
tune. That they are wrong, I for one can testify. I have seen 
It at all limes of the day, though, so far as I can remember, not 
during the breeding season. Indeed, as Mr. Robert Gray well 
remarks, there are few sights more jiicturesque in their way than 
that of a group of Shearwaters disporting themselves in a breeze 
of wind. I he name of the bird seems to be derived from its 
strange habit of suddenly sweeping down towards the surface 
of the WTiter, and ploughing it up with its breast. The splash 
of the Shearwater is quite unlike that of the Tern, and, 
although, of course, on a smaller scale, exactly resembles that 
