362 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



Although an ocean-loving bird, it is by no means 

 infrequently found as far inland as our Midland 

 counties during the prevalence of heavy gales, 

 which, from its diminutive size, it is unable to 

 weather. Specimens have from time to time 

 been shot in the neighbourhood of Oxford. 

 Yarrell also states that between two and three 

 hundred were shot near Yarmouth after severe 

 gales in 1824 ; that some three or four were caught 

 in the streets of Coventry, and three procured near 

 to the town of Birmingham. The same author 

 says that the stormy petrel breeds in the Scilly 

 Isles, on some of the islets on the Western coast 

 of Ireland, St. Kilda, and the Isle of Skye. I 

 myself have seen this petrel on two or three occa- 

 sions far out at sea, though never within several 

 miles of any coast. The name of Mother Carey's 

 chicken is said to be a corruption of ' Mater Cara.' 

 Saunders, in his ' Manual of British Birds,' men- 

 tions the occurrence of large numbers of storm 

 petrels between the latter part of October and the 

 earlier days of November, 1883, on the East side 

 of England, and the same in the first week in 

 October, 1886. In length this delicately -formed 

 little bird measures but six inches. The plumage 

 of the upper and under parts is black ; the bases 

 of the tail-coverts slightly edged with white ; the 

 sides of the vent are also white ; the bill, legs, and 

 feet are black. 



The fork- tailed petrel is slightly larger than the 

 storm petrel, measuring seven inches and a half 



