Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel.
Procellaria Leachii, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit., tom. ii. p. 812.
Hydrobates Leachii, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 562.
Thalassidroma Leachii, Keys, und Bias. Wirbelth. Eur., p. 93.
Procellaria Bullockii, Flem. Hist, of Brit. Anim., p. 136.
Thalassidroma Bullockii, Selby, 111. Brit. Orn., vol. ii, p. 537.
Procellaria leucorrhoa, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxv. p. 422.
Cymochorea leucorrhoa, Coues, Proc. of Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1864, pp. 76, 90.
Like the common Storm-Petrel, the Thalassidroma Leachii must be regarded as indigenous to Britain, inasmuch
as it breeds therein, and probably in many more localities than have as yet been noticed. At one or
other season o f the year it has been observed on the shores of every part of our islands, from the extreme
south o f England to the north of Scotland and the Hebrides ; almost every local list of birds enumerates it as
occurring in the county to which it pertains ; in Ireland, according to Thompson, it is found in all quarters
o f the island, but less frequently. Apart from England, it has been met with on the coast o f Holland and in
many parts of Scandinavia ; Professor Reinhardt says it is found in Greenland ; the American ornithologists
include it in their avifauna ; and Von Schrenck observed it in Amoorland, and states that specimens from the
Kurile Island do riot differ from those seen in England. It was first observed as a British species, and discriminated
as distinct from the Thalassidroma pelagica, by the celebrated collector W. Bullock, in whose sale-
catalogue it- appears as “ An undescribed Petrel with a forked tail, taken at St. Kilda in 1 8 1 8 ;” and
the credit o f first making us aware o f its breeding in our islands is due to the late Sir William M. E.
Milner, Bart., whose notes ori the subject, extracted from the ‘Zoologist’ for 1848, will be found below.
From that date until 1869 many hundreds o f Leach’s Storm-Petrel have been shot or otherwise obtained ;
but by far the greater number have been picked up dead, or in such an exhausted and helpless state as to be
finable to fly—some on thé sea-shore, others as far inland as the middle o f our island : one was obtained in
the streets o f Halifax, in Yorkshire ; Mr. J. E. Harting states that another was caught alive, in an exhausted
state, by a man at work on the highroad between Edgeware and Stanmore, on the 4th of January, 1850.
The Rev. Bryan Burgess, Chaplain to Lord Chesham, tells ine that on the 2nd o f November, 1859, Poulter,
his Lordship’s gardener, brought him a Fork-tailed Petrel ( Thalassidroma Leachii) which he had found
lying on its back and flapping its wings in the deer-park at Latimer, in Buckinghamshire ; it died almost
as soon as it was picked up, had the stomach empty, the whole frame very thin, and was much battered
about the head, as if it had been pecked by other birds or had sustained some severe blows ; and Mr. G.
Dawson Rowley has recorded, in ‘ The Field ’ for December 15, 1866, that another was caught in a “ ham-
and-beef ” shop in Brighton. In all probability most of the examples alluded to have been driven to our
shores by violent gales o f wind, and starvation, the inevitable result, has caused them to fall down and
die. The next autumn gale may bring us many more, and the succeeding morn reveal a number o f exhausted
birds, which are as likely to be found in an open park or on a garden-walk as on the sea-shore. Our lakes
and ponds of fresh water do not seem to have any attractions for these truly ocean-loving birds.
Not having had an opportunity o f observing this bird in a state of nature, 1 cannot do better than transcribe,
the short account given by Sir William Milner above alluded to, and the more full one contained in the
third volume of Audubon’s valuable ‘ Ornithological Biography.’
“ Not far from the top o f the cliff of the Isle of Dun, forming the western horn o f the Bay o f St. Kilda,”
says Sir William, “ were a colony o f the Fork-tailed Petrel, breeding, like the Stormy Petrel, under the stones
and rock, about a yard deep. We were first attracted to them by a low chirping noise, which from time to
time the females made while sitting upon their eggs. In one hole only did we find the male and female together.
The egg is considerably larger than that o f the Stormy Petrel, but resembles it in being surrounded
at the larger end by a beautiful zone o f red freckles. They are nearly three weeks before the Stormy Petrel
in depositing their eggs ; and in the localities where we found the Fork-tailed there was not a single Stormy
Petrel.” Sir William mentions that he also obtained specimens and eggs of the Thalassidroma Leachii on
Borrera, another small island of the St. Kilda group.
After mentioning that towards the end o f August 1831, the Storm-Petrel was so abundant off the coast
of Newfoundland that from twenty-five to thirty individuals where shot in about an hour, Audubon says,
“ The species of this genus with which I am acquainted all ramble over the seas, both by night and by day,
until the breeding-season commences ; they then remain in their burrows, under rocks or in their fissures,