644 



who thereupon killed it. 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 Ijim, and brought it to his master, 

 by whom it was skinned and mounted, and in whose 

 possession it now is. This took place in the spring of 

 1850. 



Mr. Newcome very kindly allowed the specimen to be 

 sent up to London, and with the assistance of Mr. Alfred 

 Newton, after some search, a figure of the bird was found 

 in Forster's unpublished drawings of birds, in the British 

 Museum, the name of h&sitata being written on the draw- 

 ing ; Mr. George Gray, the ornithologist in the establish- 

 ment, very readily pioneering in the pursuit. 



A detailed account of this bird, with two illustrations 

 by Mr. Alfred Newton, will be found in the Zoologist 

 for 1852, p. 3691. 



But very few examples of this species of Petrel are to 

 be found in collections. One obtained in the Indian 

 Ocean is in the Museum at Ley den. One has been taken 

 in the Australian seas. One taken in the South Seas was 

 bought at the sale of Mr. Bullock's Museum. One 

 presented to the Zoological Society by John Hearne, 

 Esq., which was brought from Hayti, is now in the 

 British Museum. Mr. Gould mentions having seen spe- 

 cimens in France, stated to have been brought from the 

 West Indies, and remembers having seen others of this 

 same species in abundance oif the Western Isles. 



The following is the description, by Mr. Alfred Newton, 

 of the bird whose capture in Norfolk entitles it to a place 

 in this volume : " The whole of the beak is black ; from 

 the crown of the head to the nape of the neck the feathers 

 are white at the base, broadly tipped with dark brown, so 



