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VIII. 



NOTES ON BIRDS OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE DURING 

 THE YEAR 1905. 



By William Bickerton. 



Read at St. Albans, 6th March, 1906. 



At the end of the year 1904 the register of Hertfordshire 

 birds contained the names of 223 recorded species. During 

 1905 I have heard of only one species not previously recorded 

 for the county, viz. Leach's Fork-tailed Petrel (Oceanodroma 

 leucorrhoa). This has been obtained in the Watford district, 

 and I am pleased to say that I have myself had some small 

 share in its identification and addition to our list. 



In the ' Watford Observer ' of Saturday, December 2nd, 

 appeared a statement to the eifect that a Stormy Petrel had 

 been found dead during the week in Cassiobury Park, and that 

 it was supposed the bird had been di-iven inland l>y the recent 

 stonn. Thinking that the matter was well worth investigation 

 — and especially so as we have only two records for Hertford- 

 shire even of the stormy petrel (ProceUaria 'pelagica) — ^I wrote 

 to the Editor and asked him to kindly give me what further 

 information he could about the occurrence. In reply, he referred 

 me to Mr. J. Goodall, of Watford, who had found the bird, and 

 to Mr. Goodall in turn I -^VTote for particulars. Fortunately, the 

 skin, though somewhat badly damaged, had not been destroyed, 

 and Mr. Groodall passed it on to my keeping. On taking it to 

 the South Kensington Museum, and comparing it with the 

 specimens there, I found that it was not the ordinary stormy 

 petrel {ProceUaria pelagica), but a kindred member of the family 

 which had never before been recorded for Hertfordshire, viz. 

 Leach's fork-tailed petrel (Oceanodroma leucorrhoa). In due 

 course I had the bird " set up," and so am able to exhibit it to 

 you to-night. It differs from ProceUaria pelagica especially in 

 its larger size and its deeply -forked tail. 



Of all sea-birds, the members of the petrel family are certainly 

 the most sea-loving, spending by far the greater portion of their 

 lives on the ocean-waters far from land. Of them, Mr. Charles 

 Dixon writes in his ' British Sea Birds ' : " They are the birds 

 of the wide ocean, even showing small partiality for narrow seas, 

 and chiefly frequenting for breeding purposes only such spots as 

 face the widest expanses of water. They are the most marine of 

 birds, yet they form one of the least apparent features in the 

 bird-life of the sea, and more especially when that bird-life is 

 studied from the coast. Their crepuscular or nocturnal habits 

 during their short visits to the land to breed, their sombre hues, 

 their low flight, just above the waves, all combine in rendering 

 these birds exceptionally difiicult of observation." The characters 

 which distingiiish them as a group are their tubular nostrils, 



VOL. XIII. PART I. 4 



