FORKED -TAILED PETREL. 673 



and is now in the possession of the Rev. A. Shafto. A 

 specimen was picked up dead in Blenheim Park, and is 

 now preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. 



It is included by M. Nilsson in his Fauna of Scandinavia. 



In its habits, as far as observed in this country, it re- 

 sembles the Storm Petrel, breeding in sandy burrows, or 

 holes of rocks, and laying one white egg of a roundish- 

 oval form, large for the size of the bird, measuring one 

 inch four lines in length, and eleven lines in breadth. 



Mr. Audubon, who has enjoyed many opportunities of 

 observing these Swallow-like Petrels during his ornitholo- 

 gical researches in various parts of North America, as well 

 as on his various voyages across the Atlantic, says, " The 

 species of this genus with which I am acquainted, all 

 ramble over the seas, both by night and by day, until the 

 breeding-season commences ; then they remain in their 

 burrows, under rocks, or in their fissures, until towards 

 sunset, when they start off in search of food, returning to 

 their mates, or young, in the morning, and feeding them 

 then. When you pass close to the rocks in which they 

 are, you easily hear their shrill, querulous notes ; but 

 the report of a gun silences them at once, and induces 

 those on the ledges to betake themselves to their holes. 

 The Forked-tailed Petrel emits its notes night and day, 

 and at not very long intervals, although it is less noisy 

 than Wilson's Petrel. They resemble the syllables pewr- 

 wit, pewr-ivit. Its flight differs from that of the other 

 two species, it being performed in broader wheelings, and 

 with firmer flappings. It is more shy than the other 

 species, and when it wheels off after having approached 

 the stern of a ship, its wanderings are much more ex- 

 tended before it returns. I have never seen it fly close 

 around a vessel, as the others are in the habit of doing, 

 especially at the approach of night ; nor do I think that 



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