732 MADEIRAN FORK-TAILED PETREL. 



September, and another was taken at Kobbergrunden in the 

 Kattegat, on the nth of October. The principal haunts of this 

 species appear to be the waters and the islets of the Cape Verde 

 group, and those round Madeira and Porto Santo, notably the 

 Desertas already mentioned, as well as the Salvages, which also 

 belong to Portugal, though rather nearer to the Canaries, and on 

 all of these it breeds. 



On his visit to the Salvages, in the spring of 1895, Mr. Grant was 

 rather too early for eggs, but he subsequently obtained one from the 

 Lime Island, Porto Santo, taken in June. It is described as " white, 

 with an indistinct zone of light red and faint purplish underlying 

 dots round the larger end " : measurements i"3 by "96 in. (Ibis 1896, 

 p. 54). In the Cape Verde group, Mr. Boyd Alexander found 

 young or much incubated eggs by the middle of March, and he 

 noticed that the burrows of this species ran further into the ground 

 and were also more tortuous than those of the Frigate Petrel which 

 was nesting in the same locality (Ibis 1897, pp. 96-97). At night 

 the birds flitted about, uttering a note which Mr. Boyd Alexander 

 renders as "I'm a nigger, I'm a nigger, I'm a nigger." 



In this species the tail is only slightly forked, the outer feathers 

 being little longer than the middle pair ; while the upper tail- 

 coverts are white, tipped with black, and there is a considerable 

 amount of white at the bases of the tail-feathers. Otherwise the 

 Madeiran Petrel is very similar to Leach's Petrel. Mr. Grant says 

 that the female is decidedly larger than the male ; her wing averaging 

 5*98 in., whereas that of the male is 5 "8 in. 



