208 On, the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



They have been picked up now and again in different parts of our 

 county, and Hart has procured specimens in 1S68, 1<S72, 1876, 

 1878, and in fact during most years, the last he had brought in 

 being in 1883. This species is the smallest of all the swimming 

 birds, and while appearing to be far too small and weak to battle with 

 the winds and waves, in reality the rougher the weather is, the more 

 it seems to enjoy itself. 



Procellaria Leucorrhea. " Leach's or Fork-tailed Petrel." This 

 bird can be at once distinguished from the last, as its name implies, 

 by its forked tail, the tail o£ the former species being square. Hart 

 has seven of these birds in his museum. Two occurred on October 

 80th, 1867. In the year 1881, also, they were frequent, eight being 

 killed or caught between November 24th and December 7th. One 

 was killed by Rooks, which mobbed it ; and another was caught 

 alive. There were two, also, picked up near Salisbury some years 

 ago on the line, having been killed by the telegraph wires. 



Oceanites Oceanicus. " Wilson's Petrel." I can learn no oc- 

 currence of this bird at Christchurch ; the only specimen I know of 

 being mentioned by the Rev. A. C. Smith in his papers on the 

 ornithology of Wilts, where he records that it was picked up dead 

 from exhaustion in Sutton Benger Mead, in November, 1849. 



With this bird we come to the end of the various species of the 

 Natatores that have been observed in our district, and at the end of 

 this paper I append a list of those which have been obtained at the 

 mouth of our river, or in our more immediate district, and it will 

 be seen that, with the exception of a few great rarities, almost all 

 the different species of this order occur occasionally on our south 

 coast. The free use I have made of the carefully-verified notes 

 from the diary of Mr. E. Hart may be thought by some to be out 

 of place, and to contradict too much the heading of these papers, 

 i.e., " The Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds in the 

 Neighbourhood of Salisbury." But the mouth of the Avon being 

 really not more than half-an-hour's flight from our city, and it being 

 the nearest sea-board to us, it seemed to me a pity not to include it 

 in our district, as from thence we undoubtedly obtain almost all 

 those occasional specimens of sea birds which not unfrequently are 



