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CAPPED PETREL. 
WHITE-HEADED PETREL. 
Procellaria hcesitata, 
Forster. Kuhl. Temmixcr 
Procellaria. 
Procella — A storm. Hcesitata — A fictitious word 
from hcesito, to doubt—doubted about. 
This Petrel has occurred occasionally in different and 
widely-separated parts of the world, the Azores or Western 
Islands; the Australian Seas, the Indian Ocean, and the South 
Seas. 
Mr. Yarrell’s account of the first British specimen of this 
bird, taken from the source presently mentioned, is as follows: 
—‘The Petrel represented above, was observed by a boy on 
a heath at Southacre, near Swaffham, in Norfolk, flapping 
for some time from one furze bush to another; at length it 
got into one of the bushes, and was there secured by him. 
Mr. Newcome, of Hockwold Hall, near Brandon, fortunately 
happened at the time to be hawking in the neighbourhood 
of Swaffham, and his falconer, John Madden, observing the 
boy with the dead bird, procured it from him, and brought 
it to his master. This was in the spring of 1850, either in 
the month of March or April.’ 
The food of all the Petrels appears to be any thing that 
can possibly be eaten. ‘Chacun a son gout;’ and theirs is to 
have no taste for any one thing in preference to another. 
Female; length, about one foot four inches; bill, black; 
iris, hazel brown. In front of and below the eye are a few 
greyish black feathers, the latter spreading backwards, the 
orbits surrounded with a ring of light brown. Forehead and 
sides of the head, greyish white; head, crown, neck on the 
