516 



LARID.E. 



NATATORES. 



LARIBJF.. 



WILSON'S PETREL. 



Procellaria Wilsoiii, Wilson's Petrel, Jenyns, Brit. Vert. p. 286. 



Thalassidroma ,, Thalassidrome de Wilson, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. 



p. 512. 



In the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, volume 3, part 2, 1824, a memoir by Charles 

 L. Bonaparte, now Prince of Canino, gives an account of 

 four species of Storm Petrels, with the distinctive characters, 

 measurements, and figures, of each. Wilson's Petrel, the 

 bird now under consideration, is one of the species included 

 in this memoir, and, at the end of the notice of it, the author 

 says, " I have never learnt that it has been seen on the coasts 

 of Europe. I killed one, that had probably strayed, near 

 the Azores." This is the first printed notice I am ac- 

 quainted with of the appearance of Wilson's Petrel on this 

 side the Atlantic. Eight or nine years ago I saw two skins 

 of this species which had been taken by the captain of a ship, 



