46& THALASSIDROMA PELAGICA. 



was killed near Bath, and one is said to have heen shot so 

 far inland as Derbyshire. From these circumstances it is 

 understood that they sometimes fly across the land; but 

 •what occasions the annual mortality which has been noticed 

 in different parts is difficult to determine. Perhaps illness 

 is the occasion of their flying to the shore, to make a short 

 cut across promontories, or, in a weak state, to avoid a 

 storm or an opposing wind ; and being unable to proceed 

 far, they are fovmd dead on land." 



lie further states that, as it breeds on the rocky coast of 

 the north of Cornwall, and, according to Dr. Fleming, in all 

 the islands of Zetland, it is truly indigenous, although not 

 generally dispersed. 



Mr. Hewitson, who visited Shetland in search of " rari- 

 ties " for his beautiful and most accurate British Oology, 

 found it breeding in great numbers on several of the islands, 

 principally Foula, the north of Unst, Papa, and Oxna. At 

 the last of these it had not arrived on the 31st of May; and 

 on the 16th of June, although it had revisited its breeding- 

 places in Foula, it had not yet begun laying. Visiting 

 Oxna again, on the oOtli of June, he found them just 

 beginning to lay their eggs. " In Foula they breed in the 

 holes in the clifi", at a great height above the sea ; but here, 

 under stones which form the beach, at a depth of three or 

 four feet or more, according to that of the stones, as they go 

 down to the earth beneath them, on which to lay their eggs. 

 In walking over the surfoce, I could hear them, very dis- 

 tinctly, singing in a sort of warbling chatter, a good deal 

 like Swallows when fluttering above our chimneys, but 

 harsher ; and in this way, by listening attentively, was 

 guided to their retreat ; and, after throAving out stones, as 

 large as I could lift, on all sides of me, seldom failed in 

 capturing two or three, seated on their nests, either under 

 the lowest stone or between two of them. The nests, 

 though of much the same materials as the ground on which 

 they were placed, seemed to have been made with ease : 

 they were of small bits of stalks of plants, and pieces of hard 

 dry earth. Like the rest of the genus, the Stormy Petrel 

 lays invariably one egg only. During the day-time they 



