Wilson's petrel. 519 



doned the vessel. In my journal, written on board the 

 packet-ship Columbia, commanded by my worthy friend Jo- 

 seph Delano, Esq., I find the following memorandums: "Wil- 

 son's Petrel was first seen, this voyage, about two hundred 

 miles from England, and alone until we reached the middle 

 of the Atlantic, when the Forked-tailed came in sight, after 

 which the latter was most plentiful, and the Stormy Petrel 

 by far the least numerous. During my several visits to the 

 coasts of the Floridas, I saw scarcely any of these birds in 

 the course of several months spent there, but I found them 

 pretty abundant on returning towards Charlestown. This 

 species, like the others, feeds on mollusca, small fishes, Crus- 

 tacea, marine plants, and the greasy substances thrown from 

 vessels. When caught, an oily substance passes from the 

 mouth and nostrils. The sexes are similar in their external 

 appearance." 



The bill is black ; the irides dark brown ; the head, neck, 

 back, wing-primaries, and the tail-feathers, dark brownish- 

 black ; greater wing-coverts and the secondaries dark rusty- 

 brown, lighter in colour near the end, with the extreme edges 

 and tips white; upper tail-coverts white; chin, throat, breast, 

 and all the under parts sooty black, except the feathers near 

 the vent on each outside, which are white, and some of the 

 under tail-coverts are tipped with white ; legs long and slen- 

 der, with the toes and their membranes black, but with an 

 oblong greyish-yellow patch upon each web. 



The whole length of a fine specimen seven inches and a 

 half; the wing, from the anterior bend to the end of the 

 longest quill-feather, six inches and one-eighth ; length of 

 tarsus one inch three- eighths ; middle toe and claw one inch 

 and three-sixteenths. 



