314 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



This bird is described by R. Gray as " strictly a 

 western species in Scotland," although there is no 

 evidence of its breeding in the Inner Hebrides, 

 and two instances only of its occurrence on the east 

 coast are recorded by him. In Ireland it has been 

 repeatedly obtained in autumn and winter; and, 

 according to Thompson, it was accurately described 

 as breeding, in 1833, on rocky islets near Slyne 

 Head, Galway. Mr. Ussher states that it breeds on 

 the Blasquets, Co. Kerry, and on the Great Skellig 

 as well as on other islands off the coasts of Kerry 

 and Mayo ("Birds of Ireland," p. 386). 



On the English coasts it is not uncommon in 

 the fall of the year, at which season, after a pre- 

 valence of north-westerly gales, it is often met with 

 inland at a considerable distance from the sea. 



A single example of the Madeiran Fork-tailed 

 Petrel (P. cryptoleucura, Ridgway ; P. castro, 

 Harcourt) was picked up dead on the beach at 

 Littlestone, Kent, in Dec. 1895 {Ibis, 1896, p. 

 401), but this species has no claim to be included 

 amongst the periodical migrants, or even amongst 

 the rarer visitants to the British Islands. 



