734 WILSONS PETREL. 



have occurred in Cumberland, the latest of them in November 1890. 

 Mr. Henry Evans secured an example on Jura early in October 

 1 89 1, the first for Scotland. As regards Ireland, a specimen 

 which was supposed to have been obtained in co. Dublin, was 

 presented to Thompson in August 1840 by Glennon ; while, on 

 the ist and 2nd of October 1891, examples were secured in co. 

 Down and co. Antrim, respectively. 



In France, three examples have been taken in the Gulf of 

 Gascony, all of them in December, while stragglers have occurred 

 on the coast of Provence ; I have a bird, in moult, captured off 

 Malaga on August 7th 1873; and Dr. Salvador! has identified a 

 specimen in the University Museum of Cagliari, said to have 

 been obtained off Sardinia. Mr. Godman found this Petrel 

 common in summer about the Azores, and Mr. Meade-Waldo 

 observed it occasionally in the Canaries ; while it has been procured 

 along the west coast of Africa as far as the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Examples were obtained by the ' Challenger ' Expedition, off the 

 Antarctic ice-barrier, on February 14th 1874; the Rev. A. E. Eaton 

 found the bird breeding on Kerguelen Island ; it visits the Arabian 

 Sea ; and it ranges over the South Atlantic from Brazil to Australia 

 and New Zealand, whence it can be traced across the South Pacific 

 to Chile and Peru. In the North Atlantic it is common along the 

 American coasts, visiting the West Indies and Mexico. 



Nine eggs brought from Kerguelen by Mr. Eaton and described 

 by me (Phil. Trans, clxvii. p. 164) are of a dull white colour with 

 minute purplish-red spots, which usually form a zone at the broader 

 end : measurements i"3 by "9 in. They were laid in January and 

 February, in crevices and holes among shattered rocks or large 

 boulders. The birds arrived at their nesting-places in the latter part 

 of the previous November, but comparatively little was seen of 

 them by day, though towards evening they used to fly over the 

 water like Swallows, or follow the course of the valleys far away 

 into the country. In food and general habits this resembles other 

 small Petrels; in its anatomy, however, both Garrod and Forbes 

 considered that it differed so widely from the majority as to be 

 entitled to rank in a separate family, Oceanitidcz. 



This bird has sooty-black plumage above and below, the quills and 

 tail-feathers darker black ; greyish-white edges to the wing-coverts 

 and inner secondaries ; white upper tail-coverts and thigh-patches ; 

 and a little white at the bases of the outer tail-feathers ; black bill, 

 legs and toes, and the webs of the last are yelloiv at their bases. 

 Total length 7 in., wing 6 in., tarsus i"4 in. 



