THE STORM PETREL. ** 



Petrel, which has been observed to remain at a Petrel- station on South Uist 

 during the months of November, December, and January. Mr. Harvie- Brown 

 states that rumours of winter colonies of Storm Petrels have reached him from 

 other localities ; so that we may find that the Storm Petrel spends more time in 

 its island haunts than ornithologists have been aware of hitherto. But there can 

 be no doubt that the natives of the Shetlands and Fseroes regard the Petrel as a 

 summer visitor. Mr. Raeburn states positively that the " Swallow," as this Petrel 

 is called in Shetland, does not reach the island of Oxna for the purposes of 

 breeding until the last few days of June, its nesting haunts being occupied, 

 prior to its return, by Starlings, which rear their young in the Petrel's 

 favourite holes and crevices. It is probably in consequence of the milder climate 

 prevailing on the South-west coast of Ireland, that Mr. W. H. Turle discovered 

 that the Petrels of the Blasket Isles had already begun to lay numerously 

 by the last week of May ; the breeding season appears to be more protracted on. 

 the Irish coast than in more northern latitudes. Mr. Turle suggests that this 

 Petrel rears two broods in a season on the Blasket Isles. Without accepting this 

 suggestion as proven, it is an undoubted fact that the Storm Petrel nests from 

 early summer to late autumn. Mr. Seebohm found fresh eggs of the Storm Petrel 

 on the Blaskets as late as September i7th, when many young birds tenanted the 

 Petrels' nesting holes. July is the chief month in which the eggs of the Storm 

 Petrel are laid in Fferoe. Mr. Knud Anderson states that the young in down 

 can be taken as late as November, so that, even in the Faeroes, the breeding of 

 this Petrel is evidently protracted. Saxby considered that the Petrels which breed 

 in Shetland lay in favourable seasons about the middle of June ; I have found 

 fresh eggs of this species myself during the latter portion of that month. 



Hewitson states that the Storm Petrel sometimes elects to nest in holes in 

 the cliff at a great height above the sea ; this he found to be the case on the 

 island of Foula. Few ornithologists have sought the nesting burrows of this 

 Petrel in such elevated situations. The Storm Petrel prefers to burrow in a low 

 brae of soft peaty earth, in which it excavates winding passages, with frequent 

 ramifications. Rabbit burrows are said to be adopted by this Petrel as nest- 

 galleries ; but the present species nests regularly under slabs of rock, among loose 

 debris, or in the interstices of an old wall or ruined building, according to 

 circumstances. The Storm Petrel lays a single egg, but two females sometimes 

 lay in close proximity. 



The egg of the Storm Petrel is white, often ringed faintly with pale red 

 specks, and measures about one inch in length. It is deposited upon a few dry 

 stems of grass near the extremity of a nesting burrow. The task of incubation 



VOL. VI. 2 H 



