FORK-TAILED PETREL 539 



on 27th September, coming, in their eagerness for food, 

 close to the spectators, and at Banagher the birds were not 



only seen on the river, but in the town 



A correspondent, who enclosed one to Dr. Scharff from 

 Moy, co. Tyrone, stated that dozens were lying about 

 that place. It appears, therefore, that these birds were 

 blown right across Ireland ; but flocks, apparently of 

 Fork-tailed Petrels, were still seen off the west coast 

 in- the middle of October. On the 14th of that month 

 the lightkeeper at the Skelligs stated that he saw 

 about two hundred Petrels which were larger than the 

 Storm-Petrel, in flocks of about twenty or thirty (Migration 

 Reports). At the same time flocks of Petrels appeared on 

 the coasts of Wexf ord " ('Birds of Ireland,' pp. 387-388 ; 

 vide also Barrington, ' Migration of Birds/ pp. 240 and 

 255). 



The same gales blew numbers of Fork-tailed Petrels over 

 Scotland and England, though Mr. Harvie-Brown did not 

 find the birds increased to any appreciable extent in the 

 Outer Hebrides, 1 as recorded by Mr. Evans in ' Ann. Scot. 

 Nat. Hist., 1891,' pp. 74, 75. In ordinary calm weather this 

 Petrel migrates in autumn and winter along the British 

 coast, and specimens have also been secured in spring and 

 summer. Though irregular in its appearance, and occurring 

 only in limited numbers, yet it is a bird of wide distribution 

 and has touched on almost all points of the coast-line. 

 Bullock first discovered it as a British bird at St. Kilda in 

 1818 (McGillivray, ' British Birds,' p. 265). 



Among recent captures may be mentioned : A specimen 

 picked up in an exhausted state in a field at Cadbury in 

 Somerset, on November 30th, 1902. " As Cadbury is some 

 twenty-five miles from the nearest point on the coast, 

 the bird had doubtless been blown inland by the recent 

 heavy gales, but whether from the Bristol or English 

 Channel is uncertain, most probably, however, the former " 

 (R. H. Reid, ' Zoologist,' 1903, p. 29). Another ' picked up ' 

 dead in the park at Beauport, Battle, Sussex, and identified 

 on November 8th, 1905, by Mr. T. Parkin ('Zoologist,' 

 1905, p. 465). Another picked up near Douglas, Isle of Man, 



1 There have not been many records of this Petrel at any time from 

 the Outer Hebrides. One was found dead at Barra on September 28th, 

 1897 (Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1897, p. 151), while others have been seen 

 flying between Barra and an island north of it. 



