40 PROCELLARIID^. 



you pass close to the rocks iu which they are, you easily 

 hear their shrill, querulous notes ; but the report of a gun 

 silences them at once, and induces those on the ledges to 

 betake themselves to their holes. The Forked-tailed Petrel 

 emits its notes night and day, and at not very long intervals, 

 although it is less noisy than Wilson's Petrel. They re- 

 semble the syllables peicr-icit, pewr-wit. Its flight differs 

 from that of the other two species, it being performed in 

 broader wheelings, and with firmer flappings. It is more 

 shy than the other species, and when it wheels off after 

 having approached the stern of a ship, its wanderings are 

 much more extended before it returns. I have never seen 

 it fly close around a vessel, as the others are in the habit of 

 doing, especially at the approach of night ; nor do I think 

 that it ever alights on the rigging of ships, but spends the 

 hours of darkness either on the water, or on low rocks, or 

 islands. It also less frequently alights on the water, or 

 pats it with its feet, probably on account of the shortness 

 of its legs, although it frequently allows them to hang down. 

 In this it resembles the Storm Petrel, and Wilson's Petrel 

 has a similar habit during calm weather. I have seen all 

 the three species immerse their head into the water to seize 

 their food, and sometimes keep it longer under than I had 

 expected. The Forked-tailed Petrel, like the other species, 

 feeds chiefly on floating mollusca, small fishes, Crustacea, 

 which they pick up among the floating sea-weeds, and greasy 

 substances which they occasionally find around fishing- 

 boats, or ships out at sea. When seized in the hand, it 

 ejects an oily fluid through the tubular nostrils, and some- 

 times disgorges a quantity of food. I could not prevail on 

 any of those which I had caught to take food." In the 

 Pacific, the Forked-tailed Petrel ranges from San Francisco 

 to the Aleutian chain, and thence to the Kuril Islands, and 

 to Yezo, Japan. 



The egg is white, freckled and zoned with rust-coloured 

 spots, and measures about 1'3 by '95 in. Incubation com- 

 mences about three weeks earlier than is usual with the 

 Storm Petrel. From the observations of Mr. Harry Merrill 



