9292 5 Birds. 
on the 16th inst., by Mr. George Leng, of that place. This is the first instance I have 
known of the occurrence of the Manx shearwater on this portion of the Yorkshire 
coast, although the Rev. F. O. Mortis, iu his work on British Birds, mentions that 
specimens are occasionally obtained on the Yorkshire coust in the autumn. The 
plumage of my specimen, with its upper half deep brownish black, and its lower half 
unsullicd white, indicated maturity, but I regret to say that in consequence of the 
injuries sustained from shot, and the hemonhage that had taken place about the kidneys, 
&c., I was unable to decide positively as to the sex. I believe it to have been a female. 
The length from end of bill to end of tail was fourteen inches. I made a careful dis- 
section of the mouth and throat throughout its entire length, with a view to tracing 
out the source of that oily fluid which these birds have the power of discharging when 
captured alive. I failed in detecting any special or peculiar provision for this end, but 
observed that the whole glandular system of this region, from the parotid glands above 
to the thyroid and lowest cervical gluuds, were more largely developed than I had before 
noticed in any bird of the same size. The ducts of the secreting glands seemed to me also 
unusnally large for so small a bird. Still | cannot think that the oily fluid vomited 
under pressure or excitement is secreted by any glanil or glands specially designed for 
this object. I am rather inclined to think that it is vomited from the stomach, and is 
made up of the combined secretiuns from the liver, pancreas and siomach. Its colour 
and quantity, as described by Yarrell (vol. iii. p. 657), 1 think would lead to this sup- 
position as to its source. Many birds, as for instance the Columbide and Fringillida, 
have the peculiar power of regurgitating as it were the contents of their crop, &c., in 
the act of feeding their young. It is not impossible, therefore, that a bird may be 
endowed with still increased powers of discharging the contents of its stomach, &c., 
as a means of defence. The act of vomiting in the human subject, and the matters 
rejected, often mixed up with a considerable quantity of the bilious secretion, and in 
certain cases of disease, even with foecal deposit, still further sustains the possibility of 
such a power being possessed by a truly oceanic bird whose habits during the breeding 
season lead it ashore, where it has few other means of protection. The last illustration 
of regurgitant power I have given would, I think, also point to those sources of the 
oily discharge ejected by the petrels that I have already suggested. The stomach was 
a compound organ divided into two parts; viz., one, Whose powers are purely digesting ; 
the other, whose powers are purely triturating, as we usually find it amongst fish- 
eating birds. The organ was empty.—W. W. Boulton ; July 22, 1864, 
The Sea-Birds at and near Filey: a Plea for their Preservation. 
By Colonel H, W. Newman. 
I HAVE been sojourning at Filey for a few weeks; and on the 15th 
of July (St. Swithin’s), a magnificent day, calm and fine, hada grand 
baltue at the sea-birds near those stupendous rocks at Flamborough 
Head, about six or seven miles from Filey. The game was in suffi+ 
cient numbers, and among the rarer birds only one specimen of the 
bridled guillemot was killed, but a great inany of the common guille- 
