NATATORES. LAR1DÆ.
T H E 'STORM P E T R E L .
Procellariajpeld Stormy Vçlrel,
Thulassidrorna ,
Procell-arià
‘Thalassidromd,
Rrocellaria g
Thalassidroma,
Common Storfli',,
, Pétrel tempête
Thalassidrome ,,
,Ben,k. ii.
M o s^ .O r’nith. Du:t^-'
B eWiôk, ' vfrb
F lem. Br^t. â jir
See h y,, l'iiiü (irÉÎÜf; vol. ii. p. 533.
J e n y n s , Brit. Vert. p. 285.
§P^oej, Bir-3s*6£ 'Eiiïofe, pt: xi.
Ti m m . Man. d’üinitli. Vi ,1. u. » . RXOci
H „ vol.-iv. p. 5 l £
T he Stobm P etbee^ ^ smrallesJ. ^e^f^ojt,ed bird .known,
and the laufejf our British Bir4s-.ini -tke ..^ang|meiit hgre
adopted, has sa often-bggn .the subject qf n o ti^ b y
and writers generally, and-even-by^poets^that, little ^ p p y e lty
remains to-behold. A yqar seldom;.pa|se^witbout,soi^pf
these birds being obtained on our shores,.and It^as'kappened
occasionally that they appear in large flocks, Thus M^fifs.
C. and J . Paget, in their. ’Sketch igf .th ^ ^ a tu ra l History of
Yarmouth and its neighbourhood, mention^that .in^Njxvem-
ber, 1824,. between two and three-hundred we^e-shot,after
sèv-ére gales'. Ten or twelve years ago Mr. Gould exhibited
twenty-four, in a large dish, at one of the evening meetings
of the Zoological Society. In March, 1825, one bird of this
species,'while flying about over the Thames between the
bridges of Blackfriars and Westminster, Was shot from a coal
barge. Theses small birds, are frequently driven by strong
winds to great distances inland. Mr.;Biehéno has recorded
one1 taken , near Newbury, in Berkshire, others have been
taken in,, Oxfordshire ; three Or four are noticed as having
been?eedught in the streets of the town of Coventry ; and
three within- a-few; miles of Birmingham:- ' This species appears
âj^octb breed freely,at maky different places around us,
generally small, islands ; but.- is never, observed to frequent
land except during the breeding-season. Among some other
'teferteAéojbMr. X). W. Mitchell say4 “ the
StormylRfetrèh also• breeds at :Scîllÿ; and is, as far as I know,
confi«ed%to- -one locality- On the islëWhere the Thames
steamer ran ashore',' -in the extreme S. W . of the group. It
~ is the d'atfesèïlayer among, the "-’sea-fowl ; the first egg I took
was newly^dropped in >the<} second week of June.” . Mr.
Thompson mentions that this bird is at all times;lb be met
with-on the icoasts of Ireland," washed by the Atlantic* and
- breeds .hh jêhverâh of the1’islets ranging from n orth to south of
the - westerns coasti Pennant found them in August, 1772,
on thelké&ksceJfed Macdonald’s Table, off the north end of
the^ Islefof Skye!* and conjectured-they bred there. They
lurkètb under d^fse Intones, but betrayed themselves by their
twittering nbise^ti' Mr. John Maegillivray, who visited the
, Hebrides5 in July, 1840, says, “ The Stormy Petrel is abundant'
in St:' Kilda. The’island of Soa is the principal breed-
-> iifg-plhc^ where^ as well as in several spots among the others
of ,,thè group, it nestles among debris, and in crevices of the
rocks. The bird sits very close upon the nest, from which
• it will allow itself to be taken by the hand, vomiting on
being handled a quantity of pure oil, which is carefully pre