FORK-TAILED PETREL 539 
on 27th September, coming, in their eagerness for food, 
close to the spectators, and at Banagher the birds were not 
only seen on the river, but in the town. twat Boca 
A correspondent, who enclosed one to Dr. Scharff from 
Moy, co. Tyrone, stated that dozens were lying about 
that place. It appears, therefore, that these birds were 
blown right across Ireland; but flocks, apparently of 
Fork-tailed Petrels, were still seen off the west coast 
in the middle of October. On the 14th of that month 
the lghtkeeper at the Skelligs stated that he saw 
about two hundred Petrels which were larger than the 
Storm-Petrel, in flocks of about twenty or thirty (Migration 
Reports). At the same time flocks of Petrels appeared on 
the coasts of Wexford” (‘ Birds of Ireland,’ pp. 387-388 ; 
vide also Barrington, ‘ Migration of Birds,’ pp. 240 and 
255). 
The same gales blew numbers of Fork-tailed Petrels over 
Scotland and Kngland, though Mr. Harvie-Brown did not 
find the birds increased to any appreciable extent in the 
Outer Hebrides," as recorded by Mr. Evans in ‘Ann. Scot. 
Nat. Hist., 1891,’ pp. 74, 75. In ordinary calm weather this 
Petrel migrates in autumn and winter along the British 
coast, and | specimens have also been secured in spring and 
summer. ‘Though irregular in its appearance, and occurring 
only in limited numbers, yet it 1s a bird of wide distribution 
and has touched on almost all points of the coast-line. 
Bullock first discovered it as a British bird at St. Kalda in 
181e (McGillivray, ‘ British Birds,’ p. 265). 
Among recent captures may be mentioned :—A specimen 
picked up in an exhausted state in a field at Cadbury in 
Somerset, on November 30th, 1902. ‘‘ As Cadbury is some 
twenty-five miles from the nearest point on the coast, 
the. bird had doubtless been blown inland by the recent 
heavy gales, but whether from the Bristol or English 
Channel is uncertain, most probably, however, the former ”’ 
(R. H. Reid, ‘ Zoologist,’ 1903, p. 29). Another ‘ picked up’ 
dead in the park at Beauport, Battle, Sussex, and identified 
on November 8th, 1905, by Mr. TI. Parkin (‘ Zoologist,’ 
1905, p. 465). Another picked up near Douglas, Isle of Man, 
' There have not been many records of this Petrel at any time from 
the Outer Hebrides. One was found dead at Barra on September 28th, 
1897 (Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1897, p. 151), while others have been seen 
flying between Barra and an island north of it. 
