FORKED-TAILED PETREL. 521 



seum. At that time only three other examples of this species 

 were known ; one in the Museum at Paris, a second in the 

 possession of Baron Laugier at Paris, and a third in the col- 

 lection of M. Baillon, of Abbeville, which had been taken in 

 Picardy. 



This species, and the Storm Petrel next to be described, 

 are mostly obtained in this country during the violent gales 

 of wind which sometimes occur about the vernal, or autumnal 

 equinox, but particularly the latter. Several were procured 

 during the stormy weather which occurred in the autumns of 

 1823, 1825, and 1831. So many examples have now been 

 obtained, that it would be useless to enumerate the localities 

 known. It may be sufficient to notice that it has been ob- 

 tained on various occasions in all quarters of Ireland, and in 

 almost every maritime county of England ; sometimes under 

 peculiar circumstances. Mr. T. C. Heysham, of Carlisle, 

 sent me notice in November, 1841, of a Forked-tailed Petrel 

 that was caught in a poke-net set for fish in the Solway Frith. 

 I obtained a bird that was sent alive to Leadenhall market, 

 but it was exhausted from want of food when brought to me, 

 and died the same evening. Some are occasionally found in 

 inland counties, at considerable distances from the sea, gene- 

 rally picked up dead or dying from starvation, having been 

 driven far away from their usual sources of food. Mr. T. C. 

 Eyton has recorded one taken near Shrewsbury, and now in 

 his own collection ; another was taken in Herefordshire ; one 

 at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire ; several near London ; one 

 near Saffron Walden ; one at Bassingbourne, in Cambridge- 

 shire ; one in Derbyshire. The last I have received notice 

 of was in November, 1842; this was one taken near Durham, 

 and is now in the possession of the Rev. A. Shafto. It is 

 included by M. Nilsson in his Fauna of Scandinavia. 



In its habits, as far as observed in this country, it resem- 

 bles the Storm Petrel, breeding in sandy burrows, or holes 



