LARiDJi:. 259 



every portion of the feather slowly through the 

 closed mandibles. In addition to the examples 

 recorded above as having occurred near the coast, 

 I am enabled to state that a fork-tailed petrel 

 was found dead about the middle of Decem- 

 ber, 1849, in the grounds of Mr. Hollist, of 

 Lodsworth, who obligingly forwarded the bird 

 to me. This circumstance appears worthy of 

 distinct notice, as the spot where it was found 

 is almost fifteen miles in a straight line fi:om 

 the sea. 



Storm Petrel or Mother Carey's Chicken, 

 Thalassidroma pelagica. This bird has — more 

 frequently than the last — been picked up dead 

 or nearly so on the coast, and even many miles 

 in the interior. As the name would imply, it 

 is seldom seen during fine weather, but in the 

 middle of May, 1849 — the sea being perfectly 

 calm, with a gentle breeze ofi" the land — 

 Mr. Swaysland met with a party of storm petrels 

 about a mile from the shore, opposite Brighton, 

 and succeeded in shooting five of them. However 

 much it may appear to be "at home" during a 

 storm when far from the land, and with plenty 

 of sea-room — and I have myself observed it under 

 such circumstances in the Bay of Biscay, as well 

 as ofi" the western coast of Ireland — it would 



