670 



farther to the eastward than the Azores, and beyond these 

 islands it generally abandoned the vessel. In my journal, 

 written on board the packet-ship Columbia, commanded 

 by my worthy friend Joseph Delano, Esq., I find the fol- 

 lowing memorandums : " Wilson's Petrel was first seen, 

 this voyage, about two hundred miles from England, and 

 alone until we reached the middle of the Atlantic, when 

 the Forked-tailed came in sight, after which the latter 

 was most plentiful, and the Stormy Petrel by far the 

 least numerous. During my several visits to the coasts 

 of the Floridas, I saw scarcely any of these birds in the 

 course of several months spent there, but I found them 

 pretty abundant on returning towards Charlestown. This 

 species, like the others, feeds on mollusca, small fishes, 

 Crustacea, marine plants, and the greasy substances thrown 

 from vessels. When caught, an oily substance passes from 

 the mouth and nostrils. The sexes are similar in their ex- 

 ternal appearance." 



The bill is black ; the irides dark brown ; the head, 

 neck, back, wing-primaries, and the tail-feathers, dark 

 brownish-black ; greater wing-coverts and the secondaries 

 dark rusty brown, lighter in colour near the end, with the 

 extreme edges and tips white ; upper tail-coverts white ; 

 chin, throat, breast, and all the under parts sooty black, 

 except the feathers near the vent on each outside, which 

 are white, and some of the under tail-coverts are tipped 

 with white ; legs long and slender, with the toes and their 

 membranes black, but with an oblong greyish-yellow 

 patch upon each web. The whole length of a fine 

 specimen is seven inches and a half; the wing, from the 

 anterior bend to the end of the longest quill -feather, 

 six inches and one-eighth ; length of tarsus one inch 

 three-eighths ; middle toe and claw one inch and three- 

 sixteenths. 



