FORK-TAILED PETEEL 541 



an interesting account of eggs which were received from the 

 Tearaght rock off the Kerry coast on July 1st, 1886, June 

 21st and 23rd, 1887, and July 6th, 1888. (Vide also Bar- 

 rington, ' Migration of Birds,' Eep. 18S9, p. 115.) On May 

 20th, 1889, another egg was taken on Inishnabro, a neigh- 

 bouring island belonging to the Blasket group (vide ' Ibis,' 

 1880, pp. 11-12) ; while on August 13th, 1899, an egg much 

 incubated was received by Mr. Barrington from an island 

 off the Mayo coast. 



It is not unlikely that this bird breeds on other islands, 

 but its secretive habits render it difficult of observation. 



Geographical distribution. Abroad, this Petrel is widely 

 distributed. To the coast of Norway it is a wanderer, 

 but it has reached Iceland : storm-driven birds have been 

 recorded from many countries of Central and Southern 

 Europe, while southward some of the islands off the north- 

 west coast of Africa are visited. Westward this bird is 

 common off the eastern sea-board of Canada, migrating in 

 winter over the North Atlantic to about lat. 35 N. It 

 also occurs in Greenland. On the North Pacific coasts of 

 the American Continent its breeding range extends from 

 California northward to Alaska ; from thence it can be fol- 

 lowed to the Kurile and other islands 1 off the eastern side 

 of the Asiatic Continent. Japan is also visited. It seems 

 that this Petrel, during its winter peregrinations, does not 

 cross the Equator ; in fact its southern limit is probably 

 about lat. 25 to 30 N. 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. General plumage sooty- 

 black ; head, throat, back, scapulars, and wings, with a slight 

 plumbeous shade ; wing-coverts and edges of the secondaries 

 shading from greyish-black to ashy-grey ; longer upper 

 tail-coverts, white ; shorter ones, sooty-black margined with 

 white ; tail, black and forked ; under tail-coverts, whitish at 

 the base. 



Adult female nuptial. Similar in plumage to the male. 



1 A specimen from the Kurile Islands, belonging to the late Mr. 

 Seebohm's collection, and now in the British Museum, shows some 

 white at the base of the outer tail-feathers, and along the outer web of 

 the outermost feather ; but in other respects resembles specimens from 

 the North Atlantic (vide Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxv, pp. 319-350). 



