Zoology, 3^ 



The Gray Phalarope (Phalaropus platyrh;^nchus Tern.) 

 was shot within six miles of this town, in October last. Both 

 these birds are in my possession. -— T. G. Chipping Norton y 

 Oa:on., Dec, 31. 1831. 



In om- Vol. III. p. 325. will be found an interesting descrip- 

 tion, both of the almost inaccessible situations in Shetland 

 and Orkney in which the stormy petrel (Procellaria pelagica) 

 breeds, and of the ingenious yet hazardous means used by 

 the inhabitants to capture the young birds ; the description^ 

 immediately suggests the recollection of Shakspeare's Kirig 

 Lear, and " samphire-picking, dreadful trade." 



The superstitions which have hitherto been, and, it is too 

 probable, long will be, associated with the stormy petrel, are 

 met by some rational and philosophic remarks, in Rennie's 

 Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, under the article Pe- 

 trel, p. 361.— j; D. 



The Forked-tail Petrel {Procellaria Leachn), and a Species 

 of Tern fomid dead inland. — " Several stormy petrels ap- 

 peared last week in this and the adjoining counties. One 

 was found dead in this vicinity on Saturday, doubtless killed 

 in the severe hail storm on Friday night. The stormy 

 petrel is not larger than a swallow, and its colour is black ; 

 except the coverts of the tail, the tail itself, and the vent 

 feathers, which are white. Its legs are long and slender, and 

 it is web-footed." {Hereford Journal, Dec. 21. 1831.) I 

 was fortunate enough to obtain two of these wanderers, 

 which were, most probably, driven from the coast by a violent 

 gale of wind ; but neither of my specimens is the stormy 

 petrel. The one is the forked-tail petrel (Procellaria 

 Leach ?V) ; the other a tern, which I cannot identify with either 

 of Bewick^s descriptions of the species. I imagine it to be a 

 last year's bird, of the gull-billed tern (Sterna anglica), the 

 under mandible of the bill being angulated. Both specimens 

 were found dead. I am, Sir, &c. — J. A. H* Rington, 

 Herefordshire, Dec. 24. 1831. 



Two Stormy Petrels taken at Birmingham. — On the 13 th 

 of December, 1831, owing, it is supposed, to a continued gale 

 of wind, which blew from the south-west during the day and 

 night previous, accompanied with violent storms of rain, two 

 stormy petrels were taken near this town, both nearly dead 

 from exhaustion. One was found in Bradford Street, and is 

 now placed in Weaver's Museum ; and the other was found 

 on Washwood Heath, which is situated about three or four 

 miles to the north-east of the town, and the bird is now in 

 the possession of the gentleman who picked it up. — C, Bir» 

 mingham, December 15. 1831. 



