of Jan. 7, 1839, on some Birds, Fishes, ^c. 183 



petrels (Thalassidromce) were taken in many parts of the country ; 

 and chiefly during the latter part of the day of the 7th after the hur- 

 ricane had ceased. At two o'clock, p.m. or just about its termina- 

 tion, one of these birds was picked up alive, but in a very exhausted 

 state, in one of the streets of Belfast. On the 10th inst. two others, 

 one of which I saw, and found to be the T. pelagica, were taken— 

 the one alive, the other dead — beside a spring-well at Seymour Hill, 

 about four miles from Belfast. Near Saintfield in the county of 

 Down, distant about ten miles from this town, I have heard that a 

 petrel was obtained after the hurricane. 



Mr. Glennon, bird preserver, Dublin, states that a specimen sent 

 him to be preserved was procured on the 7th in one of the streets of 

 the town of Cavan, and that on the same day another was found at 

 Brown Hall, county of Carlow. C. Carleton L'Estrange, Esq. in- 

 forms me, that when out woodcock shooting in the plantations at 

 Colonel Eniry's demesne some miles from the town of Cavan, about 

 a week after the 7 th of January, he found two petrels which had evi- 

 dently been dead for a few days or from about the time of the hur- 

 ricane ; they were too much injured by exposure to the weather to 

 be preserved. In the possession of my friend R. Ball, Esq, of Dublin, 

 I have seen a Thai, pelagica which was sent him from Kells, county 

 of Meath, where it was procured on the 7th — on the same day a 

 petrel picked up near MuUingar, county of Westmeath, was sent to 

 a gentleman of my acquaintance in Dublin ; and on this day like- 

 wise I have been informed that one was found dead near the town 

 of Wicklow. Of all these specimens I have seen but the two no- 

 ticed as T, pelagica ; of two or three others I could not obtain inform- 

 ation sufficiently satisfactory to enable me to judge whether they 

 were this or the fork- tailed species. Thai. Bullockii, but the remainder 

 were described in such a manner as to leave no doubt on my mind 

 as to their being the T. pelagica. Of the petrels which I have be- 

 fore seen and which were obtained at various times and places 

 throughout Ireland, about as many were of the T. Bullockii as of the 

 other, which is considered the more common species. There have 

 been diiFerent conjectures as to the cause of the petrels' appearance 

 on land, but in this instance when more of these birds were found 

 scattered over the country than on any previous occasion imme- 

 diately after the greatest hurricane that has within the memory of 

 the oldest persons swept over Ireland, we are compelled to attribute 

 their presence to "its agency alone. From several of these birds ha- 

 ving been found in the extreme east as well as the more central por- 

 tion of Ireland, it would seem from the fact of the hurricane ranging 



