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OCEANITES OCEANICA (Kuhl*).
WILSON’S PETREL.
Thalassidroma Wilsoni.
Oceakites, Keyserling and Blasiust .—Bill small and weak, tbe unguis
gradually decurved ; nasal tubes perfectly horizontal. Wings exceedingly long,
the second quill-feather much the longest, the first quill being shorter than the
fourth, and slightly exceeding the fifth. Tail almost square. Legs long and
slender, hare for a considerable distance above the tarsal jo in t; feet nearly as
long as the tarsi, membranes emarginate, hind toe absent.
T h i s long-legged Petrel was noticed and figured as Procellaria
pelagica by Wilson (Am. Orn. vii. p. 90, pi. lx.
fig. 6), under tbe impression that it was identical with the
Storm Petrel, but the earliest scientific description of it was
given by Kuhl in 1820. In 1824 Bonaparte published a
memoir on four species of Storm Petrels, with the distinctive
characters, measurements, and figures of each, in the
‘ Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila-
* Procellaria oceanica, Kuhl, Beitr. Zool. p. 136, tab. x. fig. 1 (1820).
t Wirbelth. Eur. p. 238 (1840).
delphia,’ vol. iii., and he there (p. 231), in ignorance of
Kuhl’s name, proposed to call this bird Procellaria wilsoni,
in honour of the distinguished ornithologist, whose name
can, however, only be handed down to posterity in the
trivial appellation. In this memoir Bonaparte says, “ I
have never learnt that it has been seen on the coasts of
Europe. I killed one, that had probably strayed, near the
Azores” ; and this appears to be the first printed notice of
the occurrence of Wilson’s Petrel on the European side of
the Atlantic.
Some years ago the Author saw two skins of this species
which had been taken by the captain of a ship, while sailing
up the British Channel. The muscles about the wings of
these specimens, when closely examined, proved to be still
soft and moist, and he was told that these two birds had
been caught by the captain himself, from the stern of the
ship, with a baited hook at the end of a long slender line of
thread. These are the specimens referred to by the Rev.
L. Jenyns, in his British Vertebrata. Subsequently the late
Mr. Gould stated (P. Z. S. 1839, p. 139), that on his voyage
to Australia in May, 1838, he saw Wilson’s Petrel in abundance
immediately off the Land’s End, and it continued to
accompany the ship throughout the Bay of Biscay, the little
Storm Petrel being also seen, but in far less numbers. In
November of the same year, 1838, a specimen of Wilson’s
Petrel was found dead in a field near Polperro, in Cornwall,
and a record of the occurrence was published in the second
volume of the Annals of Natural History, by Mr. Couch,
who very kindly sent the bird, when preserved, to the
Author, that a drawing might be taken from it as a British
specimen. In the spring of 1839, Mr. Charles Buxton, of
Norfolk, sent notice of one said to have been obtained in
that county, and Mr. J. H. Gurney has another, purchased
some year’s ago; but Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., writes that he
is doubtful as to either of them being really British-killed.
The Author was informed of the occurrence of another by
the late Mr. T. C. Heysliam, of Carlisle; and Mr. F. Bond
records one killed in Sussex (Zool. 1843, p. 148). The