Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

146 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY
unknown and unsuspected breeding-place in our northern
islands, though where such a place
should be I could not
suggest. 1 This pretty fancy has, of course, been quite
dispelled by the abundant evidence that they are not in
breeding condition 2
but some
;
compensation
is afforded
by the interesting fact, now conclusively established, that
members of a group like the Tubinares, which contains some
of the birds best endowed with the power of flight, should
so moult their wings as to become almost, if not quite,
incapable of it, and I trust the matter will receive due
attention from those who have the opportunity of further
investigating From it. very ancient times it has been
known that the Anatidce become flightless by the simultaneous
shedding of their quills after the breeding season,
and quite recently the same thing has been shown by Mr.
Bonhote and others to occur in other groups, as the Rallidce
and Colymbidce, but we could hardly have suspected such
rovers of the sea as the Procellariidce to be subject to a
disability of the like kind.
I have compared the two specimens obtained off St.
Kilda in the fourth week of July 1899 with two in the
Strickland Collection (No. 3075 a and //) in our Museum
that are apparently full winged, and the condition of the
former may thus be briefly described :
A. Wings
all the primaries new, the first from the outside not
exceeding one-third of the full growth ;
second from the outside longer than the preceding,
but shorter than the next ;
third from the outside, though the longest in the
wing, reaching only the proximal part of the
whitish patch on the upper tail-coverts ;
fourth and fifth, more advanced in proportion, but
hardly full grown.
Tail two middle rectrices new and about half grown, the
outer pair also new, but all the rest old.
I cannot help here acknowledging the superior intelligence of Faber, who
1
(nt supra, col. 7^6) so long ago rightly divined that the breeding-place of this
species lay to the southward of that of the Manx Shearwater.
2
See also Dr. Gadow's testimony, cited by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and
Barrington (/// supra, p. 74), in regard to the specimen shot at Rockall.