544 Laridce. 



apparently met its death by flying against the wires of the 

 electric telegraph ; the other was supposed to have been killed in 

 the same manner, as it was also found near the railway embank- 

 ment with its wing broken on the 25th of November, 1866, at 

 East Grimstead, near Salisbury. I learn from Mr. Grant that on 

 January 10th, 1867, a specimen was brought to him which had 

 been taken at Pewsey. On March 21st, 1876, a note from 

 Major Spicer, of Spye Park, informed me that about six weeks 

 previously his keeper had picked up between the house and the 

 stable a specimen quite dead, which he conjectured must have 

 been blown off the sea by a gale of wind and starved to death, 

 for it was in an emaciated condition. In December, 3884, I 

 received the fifth Wiltshire specimen, sent me for identification 

 by Rev. T. A. Preston, which had been picked up dead in 

 Savernake Forest by one of the keepers on November 28th of 

 that year. In France it is, as in the old scientific name, Pttrel 

 de Leach; but by modern ornithologists it is now commonly 

 called leucorrhoa, from Xiyxo'f, ' white,' and S^o?, ' the rump,' 

 from its white hinder parts. 



235. STORM PETREL (Thalassidroma pelagica). 



The last bird on the British list is also the smallest of the 

 Order of Swimmers, and this is the Common Petrel, which is 

 known to all, and which sailors have designated as 'Mother 

 Carey's Chicken,' ' Little Witch,' and a variety of other appella- 

 tions indicative of the superstitious awe they feel towards these 

 innocent little birds, which, as I said above, they consider not 

 only the forerunners of stormy weather, but the actual cause and 

 origin of the tempest. It is true that all the Petrels are more 

 often seen during the prevalence of gales than in calms ; and 

 they seem thoroughly to enjoy the most boisterous weather, 

 when they will skim over the crested waves, patting them with 

 their feet as they run over the surface, or fly down into the 

 hollows of the great waves and then up and over some gigantic 

 billow, in evident delight at the storm of elements raging around. 

 Sometimes they will stand for a moment on the summit of a 



