NONIXDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 343 



Family PROCELLARIID/E. Genus Daptiox. 



CAPE PETREL. 



Daption capense {LitincBus). 



(British : Very rare straggler, but doubtless a common visitor to 

 the Northern Seas during the period of winter in the Southern 

 Hemisphere.) 



This Petrel is another Southern Hemisphere species 

 observed in abundance in most of the Southern Seas. 

 It is said to breed on the island of South Georgia, and 

 doubtless does so on many other ocean islands in this 

 region, but its eggs still remain undescribed. When 

 we know so little of the area inhabited by this species in 

 summer, it may be rash to state that its appearance in 

 the Northern Seas is thoroughly normal ; but in the face 

 of what we do know respecting the laws which govern 

 the migrations of the Petrels, it seems a little premature 

 to say that there is no "adequate reason for including 

 this species among the birds of Great Britain" [the only 

 specimen observed in our area is an Irish one, so that 

 the remark is all the more unhappy] "or even of Europe, 

 for its home is essentially the Southern Hemisphere" 

 [JMamial of British Birds, p. 714). We might just as 

 well reject the Sooty Shearwater, the Great Shearwater, 

 and Wilson's Petrel for the same reason. It may be that 

 the northern flights of the Cape Petrel extend to the 

 Indian and North Pacific Oceans rather than to the 

 North Atlantic Ocean, but this is a matter of detail and 

 quite beside the argument. 



