88 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



England during that winter, a lot of very interesting information 

 regarding them having been published by Mr. J. H. Gurney in 

 "The Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society," 

 vol. v. p. 372, et seq. 



On the iQth October 1893 I saw a single specimen upon the 

 coast at Newton-by-the-Sea in Northumberland. 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE FRIGATE 

 PETREL (PELARGODROMA MARINA) ON 

 THE WEST COAST OF SCOTLAND. 



By WM. EAGLE CLARKE, F.L.S. 



A SPECIMEN of this stranger to European seas was captured 

 alive on the margin of a stream on the west side of the 

 island of Colonsay on the ist of January of the present 

 year. It was forwarded in the flesh to Edinburgh, where I 

 had the pleasure of examining it and determining its 

 identity. 



On dissection, the bird proved to be a female, and an 

 inspection of its bones indicated that it was quite a young 

 bird. Among other evidences of incomplete ossification, the 

 carina exhibited several fenestrations. The sternum of this 

 species is extremely small. 



The weather immediately preceding this bird's visit to 

 the West Coast of Scotland was characterised by severe 

 gales from the south-west, and these may, perhaps, have 

 been instrumental in driving it from its accustomed haunts, 

 the nearest of which are in the vicinity of the Canary Islands ; 

 but it is a wide-ranging species in the Southern Seas. 



The only other visit of this petrel to Europe was also 

 to the West Coast of Britain, a specimen having been 

 washed up dead on the sands of Walney Island, Morecambe 

 Bay, in November 1890, as recorded by the Rev. H. A. 

 Macpherson. 



This species varies in the coloration of the upper 

 surface, some specimens being much more dusky than 

 others, and this irrespective of age or sex. 



