408 THE TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS — TUBINARES. 



Sp. Char. Adult : Sooty plumbeous, the head and neck clearer plumbeous, the former lighter 

 anteriorly ; lower parts decidedly fuliginous ; middle and greater wing-coverts light smoky gray ; 

 remiges and tail nearly black ; upper tail-coverts white, usually more or less clouded with sooty 

 gray. Bill deep black ; iris dark brown; legs and feet entirely dusky. Downy young: Covered 

 with a very fluffy down of a uniform smoky gray color, the anterior half of the head almost naked. 



Wing, 6.00-6.30 inches; tail, 3.50-4.00, the depth of the fork, .80-90; culrnen, .60-.65 ; 

 tarsus, .90-95 ; middle toe, .80-.85. 



Leach's Fork-tailed Petrel — the common Mother Carey's Chicken of the Northern 

 and Eastern New England coast — has a very extended distribution, but few birds 

 of this family having a wider range than this. During the months of May, June, 

 and July, and a part of August, it is found breeding in high northern latitudes in 

 Europe, Eastern and Western North America, and probably in Eastern Asia, in all 

 instances on the sea-coast, and never in the interior. During the remainder of the 

 year it wanders over a large portion of the watery surface of the globe. 



On the Atlantic coast of North America it breeds from the Caseo Bay and the 

 southern coast of Maine to Greenland. It breeds also in the Hebrides, and on other 

 islands north of Scotland, but is not mentioned as breeding in Iceland, on the Faroe 

 Islands, or in any portion of Scandinavia ; and although Nilsson includes it among the 

 birds of that region, it is only an accidental visitor there. It is mentioned by Yarrell 

 as occurring in Great Britain, but is not referred to by him as breeding in any portion 

 of the kingdom. The first specimen known to have been obtained was taken at St. 

 Kilda, in the summer of 1818, by Mr. Bullock, and this is now in the British Museum. 

 Other specimens were obtained in France, and preserved as great rarities. After 

 the violent storms which occurred in the autumns of 1823, 1825, and 1831, several 

 specimens were procured. It has since been taken on several occasions in various 

 parts of Ireland, and in nearly every maritime county of England. Those captured 

 are usually exhausted for want of food, and if secured alive die soon afterward. 

 This species is mentioned by Professor Blasius as one of the birds which visit the 

 shores of Heligoland. 



Mr. A. G. More ("Ibis," 1865) states that the only breeding-place of this species 

 known to exist within the British Islands is St. Kilda, one of the Outer Hebrides. 

 Mr. J. H. Dunn mentions that it formerly nested within the Orkneys ; and it is given 

 by Mr. Dunbar in his List of the Birds of Ross-shire. Captain Elwes, who visited the 

 I [ebrides at a later date, mentions (" Ibis," 18G9) finding this Petrel, in company with 

 Procellaria pelagica, breeding on Mirigatay, a small islet near St. Kilda. He did not 

 procure any of the eggs, but he had no doubt whatever that the birds were either 

 actually breeding, or preparing so to do, in the dry peat on the tops of the cliffs. 



According to Beinhardt, this Petrel is a common resident species of Greenland, 

 breeding in all favorable localities from that region southward to the coast of Maine. 

 The most southern and western point on which I have found it breeding is Damaris- 

 cotta Island, a few miles east of the Kennebec ; but it has been taken breeding on 

 islands near Portland. Except during the breeding-season it is rare on the New 

 England coast, and is only known in Massachusetts when driven inland by violent 

 easterly storms. Giraud states that this species is of very rare occurrence on the 

 coast of Long Island. He quotes a letter from Professor Baird in reference to the 

 appearance of a large number of these birds inland, after the violent gale of August, 

 1842. Six or more specimens were procured in the neighborhood of Washington. 

 Others were killed in the vicinity of Petersburg, Ya., and at other points, hundreds 

 of miles from the open sea. One was picked up near Springfield, Mass., nearly a 

 hundred miles from the Atlantic. 



