672 LA RID M. 



investigate its ornithology. At the sale of Mr. Bullock's 

 collection in the spring of 1819, this specimen was bought 

 by Dr. Leach, and transferred to the national collection in 

 the British Museum. At that time only three other ex- 

 amples of this species w^re known ; one in the Museum at 

 Paris, a second in the possession of Baron Laugier at Paris, 

 and a third in the collection of M. Baillon, of Abbeville, 

 which had been taken in Picardy. 



This species, and the Storm Petrel next to be described, 

 are mostly obtained in this country during the violent 

 gales of wind which sometimes occur about the vernal or 

 autumnal equinox, but particularly the latter. Several 

 were procured during the stormy weather which occurred 

 in the autumns of 1823, 1825, and 1831. So many ex- 

 amples have now been obtained, that it would be useless 

 to enumerate the localities known. It may be sufficient 

 to notice that it has been obtained on various occasions in 

 all quarters of Ireland, and in almost every maritime 

 county of England ; sometimes under peculiar circum- 

 stances. Mr. T. C. Heysham, of Carlisle, sent me notice 

 in November, 1841, of a Forked-tailed Petrel that was 

 caught in a poke net set for fish in the Solway Frith. I 

 obtained a bird that was sent alive to Leadenhall Market, 

 but it was exhausted from want of food when brought to 

 me, and died the same evening. Some are occasionally 

 found in inland counties, at considerable distances from 

 the sea, generally picked up dead or dying from starvation, 

 having been driven far away from their usual sources of 

 food. Mr. T. C. Eyton has recorded one taken near 

 Shrewsbury, and now in his own collection ; another was 

 taken in Herefordshire ; one at Penzance ; several near 

 London ; one near Saffron Walden ; one at Bassingbourne, 

 in Cambridgeshire ; one in Derbyshire. I received notice 

 of one in November, 1842; this was taken near Durham, 



