Pink-Footed Shearwater on the Coast of Washington
Pink-footed Shearwater on the Coast of Washington
An extensive movement of Shearwaters observed at Point Grenville on the coast of Washington August 27, 1910, yielded the customary toll of weaklings cast ashore. Among many stranded specimens of Puffinus griseus and some of P. tenulrostris I noted carefully (but, unfortunately, had no facilities for preserving) a Shearwater which appears to be Puflnus creatopus. My notes say, “Underparts white, changing to sooty on sides of throat, edges of wings, and (conspicuously) under tail-coverts”; and make mention of bill notably stouter than that of P. griseus. Also “feet very pale, might have been pink in life.” I was not at that time acquainted with P. opisthomelas, which proves to be a smaller, slender-billed form, and so buried my notes under a misleading caption.
William Leon Dawson
Santa Barbara, California
