The Nesting of the Shearwater Puffinus carneipes

Abstract

THe Flesh-footed (or Fleshy-looted) Shearwater (Pu•nus carneipes) is a pelagic bird breeding in south temperate latitudes on islands off southern Australia and off New Zealand and ranging north across the Equator, sometimes to the Pacific coast of North America. It is designated "Pale-footed Shearwater" in the A.O.U. Checklist , but I use the name by which it is generally known where it breeds. APPEAP. ANCE The Flesh~footed Shearwater is a large and powerful petrel, about 18 inches long and weighing some 20 ounces. It is clad in brownish-black plumage and has a fan-shaped tail, a pale beak, and pale, flesh-colored legs. Superficially the bird resembles the dark phase of the more widespread Wedge-tailed Shearwater (P. pacificus), but that species has a smaller, darker beak, leaden-gray in color, while the tail is longer and truly wedge-shaped, not slightly rounded as in carneipes. These differences make the two species separable in the field, contrary to Alexander's suggestion (1945) that they "can hardly be distinguished in life". There is also some resemblance in color to the Sooty Shear-water (P. griseus) and the Short-tailed (Slender-billed) Shearwater (P. tenuirostris); but both these species have dark bills and grayish legs, and griseus has whitish under-wing coverts, while tenuirostris is distinctly smaller, with a shorter tail.