DUSKY SHEARWATER. 29 



inner web of one foot was partially nibbled away, as though 

 a mouse or some other vermin had been at it.* Fortu- 

 nately I noted these injuries at the time, which have- 

 enabled me to identify the specimen again, beyond any 

 doubt, though lost sight of for the last thirteen years. 

 Having been brought to the birdstuffer by Captain Meade, 

 and returned to him when mounted and cased, I naturally 

 inferred that the Petrel belonged to him ; and hearing some 

 time after that he had left England, and all his effects at 

 Earsham had been sold off, I presumed that this rarity was 

 lost to us altogether. In the absence of the bird itself, I 

 was unable to support my previous conviction as to the 

 species ; whilst subsequent accounts of extremely small 

 Manx Shearwaters being occasionally met with, made me 

 question my own judgment in the first instance, more 

 especially as my acquaintance with that class of marine 

 birds was somewhat limited at that time. I specially 

 mention this, because it will explain why I did not bring 

 the fact of the Dusky Petrel having occurred in Norfolk 

 under the notice of either the late Mr. Gould, when pub- 

 lishing his ' Birds of Great Britain,' or of Mr. Dresser for 

 his ' Birds of Europe,' neither of which authors have in- 

 cluded this species in the above-named publications. The 

 re-discovery of the Norfolk specimen was quite accidental. 

 Early in the present year, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., and 

 myself, being separately engaged in working out a complete 

 list of the ' Birds of Norfolk,' and comparing notes on 

 the subject, the rights of this species to rank with other 

 local rarities was questioned,' and, ' drawing a bow at a 

 venture,' Mr. Gurney put himself in communication with 

 Mr. Hartcup of Bungay, who proved to be a trustee for the 

 family of the late SirW. W. Bailing, Bart., and the Earsham 

 Estate. From him it was soon elicited that a good many 

 birds killed on the estate were preserved at the Hall, and 

 amongst these, most fortunately, was found the Dusky 



* "This was my impression at the time; but the examination of a large 

 number of Pomatorhine and other Skuas, killed on our coast in 1877, showed 

 that the webs of the feet, in this class of birds, are frequently mutilated." 



