Birds. 7503 



were first attracted to them by a low chirping noise, which from time 

 to time the females made while sitting on their eggs. In one hole 

 only did we find the male and female together. The egg is con- 

 siderably larger than that of the storm petrel, and resembles it in 

 being snrronnded at the larger end with a beautiful zone of red 

 freckles. They are nearly three weeks before the storm petrel in 

 depositing their eggs, and in the localities where we found the fork- 

 tailed petrel there was not a single storm petrel." — Sir William Mil- 

 ner (Zool. 2059). 



Materials. None : it breeds in sandy burrows and crevices of sea- 

 cliffs. 



Egg, 1. White, with a zone of red freckles ; almost equally blunt 

 at both ends. Tt is not a little remarkable that Sir William Milner 

 and Mr. Selby should differ so diametrically on the colour of this 

 bird's egg, Mr. Selby saying it is white. Mr. Hewitson figures the 

 eggs of both species with the zone of minute red speckles described 

 by Sir William Milner. 



Storm Petrel, Thalassidroma pelagica. 



Situation. On the ground among stones on small islands, or rather 

 uninhabited rocks, in the Scilly Islands and St. Kilda, in the Orkney 

 Islands, and on the coast of Ireland. It was found by Mr. Hewitson 

 breeding at Foula, Papa and Oxna : this excellent ornithologist 

 says that on the 31st of May these birds had not arrived on the 

 breeding-ground, or, to use the phrase of the fishermen, had not yet 

 " come up from the sea." Some eggs were deposited as late as the 

 30th of June. The female lays but one, which is oval and white, mea- 

 suring 1 inch 1 line in length by 10 lines in breadth. During the 

 day the old birds remain within their holes, and, when most other 

 birds are gone to rest, issue forth in great numbers, spreading them- 

 selves far over the surface of the sea. 



Materials. *' The nests, though of much the same materials as the 

 ground on which they were placed, seemed to have been made with 

 care: they were composed of small bits of stalks of plants, and pieces 

 of hard dry earth." — Mr. Hewitson (ii. 519). 



Egg, 1. White, the size of a blackbird's. See the remark on 

 colour in the preceding species. 



Edward Newman. 



