640 LARIDjE. 



on this side the Atlantic. Eight or nine years ago I saw 

 two skins of this species which had been taken by the 

 captain of a ship, while sailing up the British Channel. 

 The muscles about the wings of these specimens, which I 

 examined closely, were still soft and moist. I was told 

 that these two birds had been caught by the captain him- 

 self, from the stern of his ship, with a baited hook at the 

 end of a long slender line of thread. These are the speci- 

 mens referred to by the Rev. L. Jenyns, in his British 

 Vertebrata. When the wind blows hard Storm Petrels 

 are known to seek some protection from the gale they are 

 unable to withstand, by flying for hours under the lee, or 

 in the wake of a ship. Their swallow-like appearance, and 

 their gentle habits inviting commiseration, they are fre- 

 quently fed by throwing small pieces of fatty substances to- 

 wards them, which the hungry birds eagerly pick up from 

 the surface of the water, and sometimes, it appears, to their 

 own destruction. 



In November, 1838, a specimen of Wilson's Petrel was 

 found dead in a field near Polperro, in Cornwall, and a 

 notice of the occurrence was published in the second volume 

 of the Annals of Natural History, by Mr. Couch, who very 

 kindly sent the bird when preserved up to me, that I might 

 take a drawing from it as a British specimen. In the 

 spring of 1839, Mr. Charles Buxton, of Norfolk, sent me 

 notice of one obtained in that county. I received notice of 

 one also from T. C. Heysham, Esq., of Carlisle ; and last 

 year a specimen was procured in Sussex, for a knowledge 

 of which I am indebted to Mr. F. Bond. Other examples 

 have probably occurred, but have not, perhaps, been dis- 

 tinguished by those into whose hands they may have fallen. 

 That they might be distinguished in America was the 

 object intended by the Prince of Canino, when publishing 

 his memoir. The portion relating to Wilson's Petrel was 



