38 PROCELLARIID^. 



examples of this species were known ; one in the Museum 

 at Paris, a second in the possession of Baron Laugier at 

 Paris, and a third in the collection of M. Baillon, of Abhe- 

 ville, which had been taken in Picardy. 



This species, and the Storm Petrel next to be described, 

 are mostly obtained in this country during the violent 

 gales of wind which sometimes occur about the vernal or 

 autumnal equinox, but particularly the latter. Several 

 were procured during the stormy weather of the autumns of 

 1823, 1825, and 1831. So many examples have now been 

 obtained, that it would be useless to enumerate the localities 

 known. It may be sufficient to notice that it has occurred 

 on various occasions in all quarters of Ireland, and in almost 

 every maritime county of England ; sometimes under peculiar 

 circumstances. Mr. T. C. Heysham, of Carlisle, sent notice 

 in November, 1841, of a Forked-tailed Petrel that was 

 caught in a poke-net set for fish in the Solway Frith ; and 

 the Author obtained a bird that was sent alive to Leaden- 

 hall Market, but it was exhausted from want of food when 

 brought to him, and died the same evening. Some are 

 occasionally found in inland counties, at considerable dis- 

 tances from the sea, generally picked up dead or dying 

 from starvation, having been driven far away from their 

 usual sources of food. Mr. T. C. Eyton has recorded one 

 taken near Shrewsbury; another was taken in Hereford- 

 shire ; several near London ; one near Saffron Walden ; 

 one at Bassingbourne, in Cambridgeshire ; one in Derby- 

 shire ; one in the streets of Birmingham ; and similar 

 instances might be multiplied. On the east coast of 

 England this species is of almost annual occurrence, espe- 

 cially, as Mr. Cordeaux informs the Editor, after gales from 

 the west and north-west, from which he infers that the birds 

 are driven right across the country. The stormy autumn 

 of 1881 was unusually fatal to these ocean wanderers. Off 

 Cornwall they are sometimes quite as numerous in winter 

 as the Storm Petrel. 



Along the shores of Ireland the occurrences of the 

 Forked-tailed Petrel have been so general as to render special 



