872 Messrs. A. and E. Newton's Observations 



Croix, and, as we obtained skins of the true Laughing Gull at 

 St. Thomas, we have not much hesitation in referring the former 

 to this species*. It generally keeps in small flocks at no great 

 distance from the shore. We do not know that it breeds on 

 any of the neighbouring islands, but the harbour of St, Thomas 

 is seldom without its Uttle foraging party. 



f 63. [?] (?) Storm-Petrel. Thalassidroma (?). 



64. [?] (?) Storm-Petrel. Thalassidroma (?). 



"On the 14th June, 1858, being between St. Thomas and St. 

 Croix, a pair of small Storm-Petrels came under our lee for some 

 minutes. On September 28th I saw some two hundred Storm- 

 Petrels of a larger size, feeding much after the manner of 

 Shearwaters [Puffinus, Briss.) near the harbour of Christiansted. 

 The former of these birds I should imagine to have been Wilson's 

 [Th. wilsoni, Bp.) and the latter Bulwer's Storm-Petrels {Th. 

 bulweri, Gould) ; but I am only certain of one thing, which is 

 that the examples seen on these two occasions were of two 

 different species.'' — E. N. 



" I saw no Storm-Petrels in the West Indian seas f ; but on 



* We believe that hitherto the only instance recorded on reliable au- 

 thority of the occurrence in Europe of Ch. atricilla is that mentioned by 

 Colonel Montagu, as quoted above, and this so long ago as the month of 

 August \n^. The statements of M. Temminck (Man. d'Orn. ii. p. 77^ 

 et seq.) have been copied by other naturalists, for example. Professor Savi 

 (Orn. Tosc. iii. p. 76) and Mr. Yarrell (B. B. iii. p. 442) ; but Dr. Schlegcl 

 has shown (Rev. Crit. p. 1 14 et seq.) that these originated in an error of 

 Herr Natterer, who mistook individuals of the Mediterranean Larits 

 audouini, Payreaudeau, for those of this species, 



t " On the occasion mentioned in my note on the Frigate Bird {vide 

 supra), mingling with the large flock of Boobies were a great many birds 

 evidently Petrels, apparently alout the size of our Manx Shearwater 

 {Puffinus anglorum, Ray) and similarly coloured, that is to say, dark above 

 and white beneath, but having much more the flight of a Fulmar [Pro- 

 cellaria glucialis, L.). They were, I suspect, of the species known to the 

 French colonists of Guadeloupe as ' le Diablotin,' mentioned, but not de- 

 scribed, by M. De Lafresnaye in 1844 (Rev. Zool. vii. p. 168), under the 

 name of ' Procellaria diabelica, L'Herminier,' being doubtless identical 

 with the P.meridionalis described by Mr. G. N. Lawrence in 1847 (Ann. Lye. 

 N. H. New York, iv. j). 475), and most probably with the P. hcesitata of 

 Dr. Kuhl (Beitr. zur Zool. p. 142). If this be the case, the last-mentioned 

 n'lnie, having been published in 1820, has the priority, and should be used. 



