128 MANX SHEARWATER. 



one was taken alive near Chipping Norton, September, 1839. 



In Ireland they are summer visitants, near Dublin and 

 other parts, but locally. 



They occur, as just mentioned, in the Orkneys, but not 

 very numerously; also in the Hebrides. 



They are migratory birds, arriving in the north in Feb- 

 ruary and March, and departing in the autumn. 



In their habits they are somewhat addicted to the twilight, 

 flying abroad when the 'stars glimmer red/ to take their 

 pastime, and seek their daily food. 



They roost with the head turned back, and the bill buried 

 in the feathers. They are altogether birds of the sea, except 

 when drawn to land for the purpose of breeding. Flocks of 

 as many as three hundred have been seen together, and they 

 appear to be easily approached. Meyer writes, speaking of 

 their mode of feeding, 'It is very amusing to watch a flock 

 of these Petrels thus employed; the birds are seen swimming 

 on the waves with their heads in the water, all in the 

 same direction, and moving on very rapidly, the hindermost 

 bird always flying up and settling in advance of the fore- 

 most, like rooks following a plough. Fishermen, when in 

 pursuit of their calling, watch carefully the movements of 

 these birds, and when they see them thus employed, lower 

 their nets with a tolerable certainty of finding the shoals, 

 of which they are in search, near the surface.' 



The eggs and young are in considerable request in the 

 places where they occur, but the natural consequence is, or 

 rather has been, a great decrease in their numbers in places 

 where they used formerly to abound. 



They swim low in the water, and have the same habit 

 as the other, of seeming to run along the top of the waves, 

 scudding lightly over them, and at times, as it were, sup- 

 porting themselves on their feet to pick up food. 



They feed on fish sprats, anchovies, and others, shrimps, 

 cuttle-fish, worms, and other marine productions, and with 

 these converted into an oil the young are fed. It is also 

 made use of as a means of defence, blown from the tubular 

 nostrils. 



These birds resort for the purpose of incubation to the 

 highest grassy parts of small rocky islands and the kindred 

 shores of the mainland, as also to sandy places, where they 

 breed in burrows, going to the depth of about two feet. The 

 excavating of these appears to occupy a considerable time. 



