VoI ’i 924 1V ‘ ] FALLA, Breeding of Butlers Shearwater .- 
39 
history of the group exists. Actually, the many rare and curious 
forms of animal life which are to be found there, would well 
repay further scientific investigation. 
While much might be written of the abundance and tameness 
of the bird life of the islands generally, this may well be left 
for subsequent treatment, and the present paper confined to the 
one species under consideration, Buller’s Shearwater. 
The bird was first described by Salvin from a male example 
picked up by Buller in 1884 on Waikanae Beach, near Welling¬ 
ton. Since that time another half-dozen specimens have been 
taken in New Zealand seas, including two from the Mokohinau 
Islands, which lie about twenty miles to the south-east of the 
Boor Knights, and one recently by Mr. R. Stuart Sutherland 
V at Cuvier Island lighthouse, another forty miles further south- 
[ east. The birds taken in New Zealand include the type in the 
j British Museum, two in the Rothschild Museum, and one in the 
Dominion Museum, Wellington. In addition, sixteen specimens 
: have been recorded from Point Pinos, California. The writer 
: has occasionally found remains of this species washed ashore 
on both east and west coasts of the North Island, N.Z., and in 
? this way has obtained three skeletons. Several observers, in- 
eluding Messrs. J. G. Myers and A. C. O’Connor, of Wellington, 
f have found it common at sea off the northern coast at various 
[ dates, which seem to indicate that it is present throughout the 
: greater part of, if not the whole of the year. The following 
records are available to date: February, April (Sutherland), 
August (O’Connor), September (Myers), October, November, 
December, January (Falla). Further observations are still re¬ 
quired during the winter months. 
With regard to the egg of this species, Bent (U.S. Nat. Mus. 
Bulletin 121, p. 103) writes as follows:— 
“I have been able to locate only one egg of this rare Shear¬ 
water. It is in the collection of Col. John E. Thayer, and was 
collected by William Bartlett on Mokohinu Island, New Zealand, 
on October 20, 1900. It is ovate in shape, dull, dirty white in 
colour, and the shell is smooth but not glossy. It measures 45.5 
by 32 millimeters.” 
It is to be regretted that no publication of details accompanied 
the discovery of this egg, for several facts suggest that there may 
have been a mistake in attributing it to Buller’s Shearwater. The 
avifauna of Mokohinau was closely studied for years by F. 
Sandager, one of the most careful bird observers in the New 
Zealand lighthouse service, and he was able to record Buller’s 
Shearwater only as a visitor to that group. He does record as 
breeding there in October two smaller species, the Little or 
Allied Shearwater (P. assiniilis, Gould), and the Fluttering or 
Forster Shearwater (P. gavia, Forster). The description and 
measurement of the egg given above would apply quite well to 
that of Forster Shearwater; in fact, the average egg of that bird 
