Society on the 7tli of June, 1853, as shown hy the Minutes
of that date.
In ‘The Zoologist’ for 1858 (p. 6096), Mr. Henry
Stevenson recorded the appearance in Norfolk of a Shearwater
which he believed at the time to he an example of
this rare straggler to the shores of Great Britain, but the
specimen was lost sight of, and has only recently been discovered.
Mr. Stevenson’s account has lately been published
in the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’
Society, iii. (pp. 467-475), and from it the following extracts
are taken:—
“ My original notes on this interesting bird may he thus
summarized. About the 10th of April of the above year it
was found dead by a gamekeeper on the Earsham Estate,
situated close to the south-eastern boundary of Norfolk, and
within a mile of the well-known town of Bungay in Suffolk.*
Captain Meade, who at that time hired the Hall and the
shooting, brought the bird, in the flesh, to the late Mr.
John Sayer, birdstuffer, of St. Giles, Norwich, who at once
observed its marked difference in size from any Manx
Shearwaters he had ever seen. Being from home, myself,
at the time, I did not examine the bird in a fresh state;
but I saw it within a week of its being stuffed, and its
resemblance to the figure of the Dusky Petrel in the third
edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ and in the supplement
to the second edition (1856), struck me forcibly at first
sight; confirmed, to a great extent, by the comparison of
its measurements (though a mounted specimen) with the
description given of the species by that author.
“ It proved, on dissection, to be a male in very poor condition,
and probably had been driven so far inland by a
gale, and met its death through coming in contact, at night,
with a tree or some other object, having a wound on one side
of the head as if from a violent blow. It showed no appearance
of having been shot a t ; and the feathers, except
on the spot mentioned, were clean and unruffled ; but the
* Its flight inland, therefore, from the coast would probably have been between
Lowestoft and Southwold.
inner web of one foot was partially nibbled away, as though
a mouse or some other vermin had been at it.* Fortunately
I noted these injuries at the time, which have
enabled me to identify the specimen again, beyond any
doubt, though lost sight of for the last thirteen years.
Having been brought to the birdstuffer by Captain Meade,
and returned to him when mounted and cased, I naturally
inferred that the Petrel belonged to him ; and hearing some
time after that he had left England, and all his effects at
Earsham had been sold off, I presumed that this rarity was
lost to us altogether. In the absence of the bird itself, I
was unable to support my previous conviction as to the
species; whilst subsequent accounts of extremely small
Manx Shearwaters being occasionally met with, made me
question my own judgment in the first instance, more
especially as my acquaintance with that class of marine
birds was somewhat limited at that time. I specially
mention this, because it will explain why I did not bring
the fact of the Dusky Petrel having occurred in Norfolk
under the notice of either the late Mr. Gould, when publishing
his ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ or of Mr. Dresser for
his ‘ Birds of Europe,’ neither of which authors have included
this species in the above-named publications. The
re-discovery of the Norfolk specimen was quite accidental.
Early in the present year, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., and
myself, being separately engaged in working out a complete
list of the ‘Birds of Norfolk,’ and comparing notes on
the subject, the rights of this species to rank with other
local rarities was questioned, and, ‘ drawing a bow at a
venture,’ Mr. Gurney put himself in communication with
Mr. Hartcup of Bungay, who proved to be a trustee for the
family of the late Sir W. W. Dalling, Bart., and the Earsham
Estate. From him it was soon elicited that a good many
birds killed on the estate were preserved at the Hall, and
amongst these, most fortunately, was found the Dusky
* “ This was my impression at the time ; but the examination of a large
number of Pomatorhine and other Skuas, killed on our coast in 18/7, showed
that the webs of the feet, in this class of birds, are frequently mutilated.