326 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



white for about an inch at their base.) Legs and naked part of the 

 thighs black : slight rudiments of a hind toe. The membrane of the 

 foot is marked with a spot of straw yellow, and finely serrated along 

 the edges. Irids dark brown. 



FORK-TAILED STORMY PETREL. 



( Thalassidroma Leachii, Bonap. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. vi. p# 

 229. pi. 9. [upper figure.] et Synops. No. 309. Fork-Tail Petrel, 

 (Procellaria furcata?) Lath. Penn. Arct. Zool. No. 463. Pro- 

 cellaria Leachii, Temm. ii. p. 812.) 



Sp. Charact. — Sooty greyish-black ; upper tail coverts white, with 

 dusky shafts ; tail deeply forked, the wings not extending be- 

 yond its extremity ; tube of the nostrils somewhat inclined upwards 

 and obliquely truncated ; tarsus 1 inch long. 



This species inhabits throughout the whole of the north- 

 ern parts of the Atlantic, seeming thus to supply the place 

 of the preceding in the colder latitudes. It was, I believe, 

 discovered by Mr. Bullock, the enterprising traveller and 

 well known collector in the Isle of St. Kilda, one of the 

 Orkneys, where they were rather common, but associated 

 in small numbers, A second individual was killed on the 

 coasts of Picardy in France. According to the Prince of 

 Musignano, they are not rare on the banks of Newfound- 

 land. The Fork-Tailed Petrel of Pennant, probably the 

 same species, was taken among the ice between Asia and 

 America. A few years ago Mr. Ives obtained a straggler in 

 the vicinity of Ipswich, on the coast. Their habits and 

 mode of feeding appear to be wholly similar with the pre- 

 ceding, seizing insects from the surface of the water, never 

 diving, and pattering on its surface with outstretched wings. 

 They nest on the borders of pools and near the sea, in rat- 

 holes, and the clefts of rocks, where, when on shore, and 

 probably only in the breeding season, they remain con- 



