520 LARIDÆ.
NATATORES. LARIDÆ.
THE FORKED-TAILED PE TR EL,
Procellaria Leachii, . Fork-tailed Petrel, BÈwicKTBrïf. Birds, vol. iiî p'vîsôl.
M B u llo c k ii,. Flem. 'Brit^An, p. Ï36i
T h a la ssid rom a ,, ,, , , S to rm ,, Selby, Brit, OrûithyÆol. ii. p. 537.
P r o c e lla r ia L e a ch ii» L e a ch 's ,, jENYNS,'Brît. Veft. p. 286;',
Thalassidroma B u llo c k ii, F o r k -ta ile d ' ÉVton, Bare Brit. Birds,' p. 101.
„ ~ Leachii, „ „Storm,, Gqvvd, Birds of Europe, pt. xi. jf
Procellaria ,, Pétrel de Leach^ - Temm,M an. d’Ornith. vol^ii.p.842.
Thalassidroma ,, Thalassidrome,, - ,, ',, voTTiv, p<512.
T his species of Petrel is but very'-little smaller in size
than the bird, last described, but is at onoe. distinguished from
it by its forked tail, and its shorter legs; The first specimen
of this bird was obtained at St. Kilda in the summer of
1818, by Mr. Bullock, during a tour round the coast of
Scotland, principally undertaken with a view to investigate
its ornithology. At the sale, of Mr. Bullock’s- collection in
the spring of 1819, this specimen was bought by Dr. Leach,
and transferred to the national collection in the British Mu-
FORK ED-TAILED PETREL.
sftnm. At that time only three other examples of this species
were knowh; one in the Museum at Paris, a second in the
possession of Baron Laugier at Paris, and a third in the col-
lection of M. Baillon, o f‘Abbeville, which had been taken in
Picardy.
This species, and the'Storm Petrel next to be described,
are mostly, obtained in- this Country during the yiolent gales
of wind which sometimes bccur about' the: vernal, or autumnal
equinox^ but .particularly-theJlatter; Several were procured
during t'he stormy weather whjj$l|#$curred in the autumns of
T828, 182^^and-'.dflL '.So-many'examples have now been
obtained', th a t# would? ■ useless!'to enumerate the localities
knowhr It may be "sufficient;ttd -notice- that it has been obtained
on various occasions, in all quarters of Ireland, and in
almost h%Vy>mariti|faOr^%n^of^England ; sometimes ; under
peculiar circumstances. Mr. T. XL; Heysham, of Carlisle,
- sent m^fiotice, in November$11841, of a Forked-tailed Petrel
that was caught in a poke-net set for fish in the Solway Frith.
I,obtained.a bird that was sent alive, to Leadenhall market,
but it was exhausted from want of food when brought to me,
and died the ^sameVvbsing. Some are occasionally found in
inland counties, atfconsiderable distances-from the sea, gene-
. rally picked up dead or dying from starvation, having been
driven far away from their usual ^sources,.-of food. Mr. T. C,
Eyton has recorded one taken near Shrewsbury, and now in
his o'fan collection ; another was taken in IIerefordshire; one
at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire; several near London; one
near Saffron Walden; one at Bassingbourne, in Cambridgeshire
; one in Derbyshire. The last T have received notice
of was in^Sovember, 1842; this was pne taken near Durham,
and is now in the possession of the Rev. A. Shafto. It is
included by M. Nilsson in his Fauna of Scandinavia.
In its habits, as fir as observed in this country, it resembles
the Storm Petrel, breeding in sandy burrows, or holes