624 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



were dark brown ; the top of the head and the hack 

 of the neck slightly tinged with pale grey, and the 

 secondary quills quite as dark as the primaries. 

 This bird must very nearly have acquired its full 

 plumage ; except for the dark irides I should have 

 considered it a full-plumaged bird, as the pale grey 

 on the top of the head and back of the neck might 

 only have been winter plumage, as in the case of the 

 Kittiwake. It must certainly be much further ad- 

 vanced than a young bird, " probably in its second 

 summer," described by Yarrell as having the tip of 

 the bill yellow, the other parts greyish horn -colour ; 

 head, neck, back, wings and tail nearly uniform ash- 

 brown ; chin, neck in front and all the under surface 

 uniform ash-brown, but paler in colour than the 

 upper surface. This bird is something about the 

 size of the Kittiwake ; Yarrell says a little longer 

 nineteen inches, instead of fifteen and a half inches ; 

 the length of the wings the same, twelve inches. 



The egg is pure white, but varies in size from two 

 inches seven lines to three inches one line in length 

 by two inches in breadth. 



FORKTAILED PETREL, Thdlassidroma Leachii. 

 This little wanderer of the sea occasionally occurs 

 in this county, even in inland parts of it, during and 

 after very stormy weather. There is one specimen 

 at Cotheleston, which was picked up dead in a 

 ploughed field by the late Mr. Esdaile, after some 

 rough weather in the autumn. It has also occurred 



