268 LARHXK. 



is also said to nidify in rare instances), the wheatear, window 

 martin, swift, and rock pigeon. 



Of the uninviting situations chosen by those birds for in- 

 cubation we might agree with Shakspere in saying, 



" Where they 



Most breed and haunt I have observed the air 

 Is delicate." 



On the great breeding place of the terns, at the Rock a 

 Bill, or Cow and Calf Rocks, situated to the north of Lam- 

 bay, we have observed the sandwich, roseate, common, and 

 Arctic terns, which breed upon the larger rock, whilst on the 

 smaller one the herring and common gulls incubate ; we 

 have also found the rock pipit nestling in the thin, wiry 

 grasses, the same kind selected by some of the terns. 



Habitat Northern Europe. 



SPECIES 259 THE DUSKY SHEARWATER. 



Puffinus obscurus. Yarrell. 



Petrel obscura. Temm. 



OWING to the kindness of William Yarrell, Esq., F. L. S., &c., 

 we are enabled to notice the occurrence of this rare shear- 

 water, from a specimen exhibited at a meeting of the Linnsean 

 Society on the 7th of June, and from the elaborate paper on 

 which we take the following extracts : 



" This interesting bird, new, as I believe, to the British 

 islands, was brought to me by B. Blackburn, Esq., of Va- 

 lentia Harbour, in the county of Kerry, who afterwards sent 

 me the following note of its occurrence. 



" 4 The petrel which I left with you this morning flew on 

 board a small sloop off the Island of Valentia, on the south- 

 west coast of Ireland, late in the evening of the llth of May 

 last. Mrs. Blackburn had never observed it before on our 

 coast, and we concluded it to be the Puffinus obscurus of 

 Teuiminck and Gould. 



" ' It made no attempt either to run or fly away, and suf- 

 fered itself to be handled without exhibiting alarm; and 

 though apparently strong and vigorous, manifested quite an 

 Oriental resignation to its fate.' " 



Described by Vernon Harcourt, Esq., in his published 

 " Sketch of Madeira," Mr. Yarrell gives the following ex- 

 tract descriptive of its habits : 



" c The dusky petrel is a very tame bird, and will live upon 

 almost anything ; it runs along the ground on its belly, and 



