750 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



bird was sent to him by Col. Dalton, who found it dead at 

 Tanfield (Bewick, " British Birds," ist Ed. ii. pp. 249-251). 

 Local names : — Storm Finch (Tunstall, 1784) ; Stormy 

 Sea-runner, Cleveland (Hogg, 1845). 



LEACH'S FORK-TAILED PETREL. 



Oceanodroma leucorrhoa {Vieillot). 



Casual visitant on the coast in winter, of rather rare occurrence 

 after severe gales it is sometimes found dead in inland localities. 



The first Yorkshire reference to this bird was made by 

 Thomas Allis, in " Loudon's Magazine " for 1832, where 

 several examples were recorded, and these were also men- 

 tioned in his Report on the Birds of Yorkshire, written in 

 1844 :— 



Thalassidroma leachii. — Fork-tailed Petrel — H. Reid informs me 

 that one was shot by a boatman on the river Don near Sprotborough, 

 in 1837. which is now in the excellent collection of George Foljambe, 

 Esq. ; one was found dead in the streets of Halifax, i6th December 

 1831 ; another was found dead on Sutton Common, near Doncaster ; 

 three or four were found some winters ago near York, at which time 

 they had been met with over most of the midland counties ; very 

 rare near Leeds ; a specimen was found at Halifax a few years ago ; 

 this, as well as several of the tribe, is often attracted by the light at 

 night, where they remain till exhausted. 



When winter gales sweep across the North Sea, the Fork- 

 tailed Petrel, though an ocean-loving bird, is compelled 

 to seek shelter near the land, being sometimes driven by the 

 fury of the storm on to the beach, or even into country 

 districts far removed from the seaboard. An opinion has 

 been expressed that, as it is a western species, it is blown 

 across from the Western Sea, though I have met with it more 

 often in north-east gales than at other times. The earliest 

 date on which it has appeared, so far as I am aware, is 17th 

 September in the year 1903, when a female bird, now in my 

 possession, was shot at the Teesmouth. 



