you pass close to the rocks in which they are, you easily
hear their shrill, querulous notes ; but the report of a gun
silences them at once, and induces those on the ledges to
betake themselves to their holes. The Forked-tailed Petrel
emits its notes night and day, and at not very long intervals,
although it is less noisy than Wilson’s Petrel. They resemble
the syllables pewr-wit, pewr-wit. Its flight differs
from that of the other two species, it being performed in
broader wheelings, and with firmer flappings. It is moie
shy than the other species, and when it wheels off after
having approached the stern of a ship, its wanderings are
much more extended before it returns. I have never seen
it fly close around a vessel, as the others are in the habit of
doing, especially at the approach of night; nor do I think
that it ever alights on the rigging of ships, but spends the
hours of darkness either on the water, or on low rocks, or
islands. It also less frequently alights on the water, or
pats it with its feet, probably on account of the shortness
of its legs, although it frequently allows them to hang down.
In this it resembles the Storm Petrel, and Wilson’s Petrel
has a similar habit during calm weather. I have seen all
the three species immerse their head into the water to seize
their food, and sometimes keep it longer under than I had
expected. The Forked-tailed Petrel, like the other species,
feeds chiefly on floating mollusca, small fishes, Crustacea,
which they pick up among the floating sea-weeds, and greasy
substances which they occasionally find around fishing-
boats, or ships out at sea. When seized in the hand, it
ejeets an oily fluid through the tubular nostrils, and sometimes
disgorges a quantity of food. I could not pievail on
any of those which I had caught to take food. In the
Pacific, the Forked-tailed Petrel ranges from San Francisco
to the Aleutian chain, and thence to the Kuril Islands, and
to Yezo, Japan.
The egg is white, freckled and zoned with rust-coloured
spots, and measures about 1*3 by ‘95 in. Incubation commences
about three weeks earlier than is usual with the
Storm Petrel. From the observations of Mr. Harry Merrill
(Bull. Nutt. Orn. Soc. 1881, p. 249), it appears that males
and females participate in the duties of incubation, contrary
to the assertion of Mr. M. Hardy {tom. cit. p. 125), that the
males alone do so, or at least take the larger share. When
taken from the holes, the birds showed no disposition to
fly, but on being released, would scuttle back into their
burrows, or under some logs. They appeared to be completely
dazed with the light, and if thrown into the air,
would fly in an aimless and dazed way for a few moments.
The bill is black ; the irides dark brown ; the head, neck,
and back, sooty-black ; the forehead and throat rather paler,
and a greyish tinge about the head and neck, the back rather
the darkest in colour; wing-coverts brown, turning greyish
on the edges ; upper tail-coverts white ; primaries and tail-
feathers black; the tail forked, the outer feathers being
half an inch longer than those in the middle; breast and
belly sooty-black; behind each thigh, and extending over
the sides of the vent and lateral under tail-coverts, an
elongated patch of white; the vent and middle under tail-
coverts sooty-black.
The whole length is seven inches and a quarter; from
the anterior bend of the wing to the end, six inches ; the
length of the leg one inch. The sexes in plumage are
alike.
The nestling is covered with long sooty down, giving it, as
Mr. G-. A. Boardman remarks, the appearance of a little
long-haired mouse rather than of a bird, as neither wing
nor bill arc visible.
VOL. IV. G