Mr. Fox on some rare English Birds. 495 



Leach's or the fouk-tailed Petrel. 



Procellaria Leachii. Temm. Man, p. 812. 



This species was first noticed by Mr. Bullock, in the Island of 

 St. Kilda, and described by M. Temminck. Its occasional visits 

 to more Southern latitudes are, I suspect, not so rare as has been 

 imagined, and its residence by no means confined to its native 

 Island, as has been asserted by its first describer. Its wanderings 

 to inland places, though so contrary to its apparent habits, are 

 perhaps no less frequent than those of its lesser congener, the 

 P. pelagica, or Stormy Petrel. Two specimens have been in my 

 hands taken in England, viz. that belonging to Mr. Yarrell, re- 

 corded in Zool. Journ. vol. ii. p. 25, which was caught on the 

 Essex coast, in Nov. 1823, and another in the possession of the 

 Rev. T. Gisborne, killed at Chapel le Frith in Derbyshire, much 

 about the same time. I have also within the last year recognized 

 a bird of this species in each of the museums of Liverpool, Man- 

 chester, and Oxford, though it is only at the latter that it was 

 known as such. I could not however learn where those specimens 

 were taken, yet when joined to the Picardy bird mentioned by 

 Temminck, and the two others taken in Devonshire and Hert- 

 fordshire, as noticed by Mr. Yarrell, the conjecture is that they 

 were visitors in this country. 



The Spur-winged Goose. 



Anas Gamhensis. Linn. UOie armee. BufF. 



The compleat evidence of the capture of this species in Eng- 

 land, where it has been hitherto unnoticed, justifies us in record- 

 ing it among the rest of our rare visitants. The bird was shot on 

 20th June, 1821, near St. Germain's in Cornwall, and sent from 

 thence by Mr. H. Newburn, of that place, to Mr. Bewick, by 

 whom it was placed, after figuring it, in the Newcastle museum, 

 and the curious particulars of its capture as furnished by Mr. 

 Newburn, I have described in the account of that museum. 



in mounted specimens, as referred to in this instance, must be taken with some 

 limitation; the natural articulation being once divided, the position of the 

 •wing depends entirely on the observance and care of the artist who preserves 

 the bird. 



W. Yarrell. 



