STORM PETREL. 749 



land informed AUis that considerable flights occurred before 

 r.844, and, in October and November 1867, a number of these 

 Petrels appeared in Bridlington Bay, where eight or nine were 

 killed ; they exhibited no fear of the presence of man, and 

 one was knocked down by a short gaff. Off the Redcar coast 

 some were seen in November and December 1877 ; as also 

 at Redcar, Spurn, and other stations on 28th October 1880, 

 and the 14th of the same month in the year following, during 

 heavy northerly gales ; on the latter date one was blown 

 against a bathing van and captured alive ; I kept it for 

 some days, when it readily fed on oil which it took from the 

 surface of water in a saucer, skimming to and fro like a 

 Swallow. In the great hurricane from the north-north-east, 

 on i8th November 1893, five or six of these birds were storm- 

 driven and picked up dead or exhausted on the sands. 



Although not usually observed before the month of October, 

 it occasionally occurs at an earlier date ; I saw one at sea on 

 23rd September 1883 ; two were noted on 20th August 

 1889, off Spurn, near a fishing boat, fluttering and beating for 

 food as the men hauled their crab-pots ; and at Masham one 

 was seen on the river Ure on 21st August 1880. 



It sometimes comes within the influence of the Lighthouse 

 rays, and the Migration Reports contain references to its 

 immolation against the lanterns on dark and stormy nights ; 

 several struck the Spurn Light on 14th October 1881, and 

 also on i6th-i7th Nevomber 1898, whilst between the nth 

 and 12th November 1906, no fewer than five were thus killed 

 at the same station. 



In districts remote from the coast this little bird has 

 many times been found after stormy weather at sea, in north 

 or east gales, blown in from the North Sea, and, in westerly 

 gales, from the Irish Sea. One was found so long ago as 1813 

 at Knaresborough ; it has also occurred in the recesses of the 

 West Riding dales, and on the moorlands of the north and 

 north-west, though the instances of these occurrences are too 

 numerous to be given in detail ; it is probable that, owing to 

 its small size, it has often passed unnoticed. 



The specimen from which Bewick drew his figure of this 



