THE FORK-TAILED STORM PETREL. 269 



uses its curious-shaded bill in climbing up the rocks. Those 

 I had in my possession alive were some of them caught with 

 fish-hooks baited with meat, by the Portuguese, and some 

 taken by the hand in the day-time from underneath stones, 

 where they hide from the light.' The egg, and they lay but 

 one, measures one inch and seven -eighths in length, by one 

 inch and three -eighths in breadth, rather smaller at one end 

 than at the other, and pure white." 



Having so far availed ourselves of Mr. YarrelTs remarks, 

 we can only regret that our present limits prevent more notice 

 of the critical research so amply displayed upon the subject. 



Habitat North America. 



GENUS CXV. THALASSIDROMA (STORM PETREL). 



SPECIES 260 THE FORK-TAILED STORM PETREL. 



Thalassidroma Leachii. Temm. 

 Thalassidrome de Leach. Temm. 



THE PETRELS, the last in order and least in size of the great 

 order of the Natatores, are remarkable for the many strange 

 traditions ignorance has invested them with. 



Distinguished by the dark appearance of their plumage, 

 they appear as if habited in perpetual mourning, for the sad 

 scenes they had passed through, and for those they are about 

 to herald. Rarely met with or obtained in our island, unless 

 after the prevalence of a gale blowing from the sea, in most 

 cases it is found inland, driven thither by the storms, which 

 refused protection to the bird which seamen believe to have 

 been raised for its own enjoyment. 



One in our collection was obtained in a dying state in a 

 snipe bog near Dundalk, after a severe gale in 1848. It lived 

 for a few days in the possession of the gentleman who ob- 

 tained it, but refused all sustenance. Confinement and cap- 

 tivity would have been too great a change from the bound- 

 less " world of waters" it had wandered over previously. 



Storm petrels have been found in a similar manner in Ros- 

 common, Galway, and upon the Dublin coasts. 



Habitat North America. 



