488 WILSONS PETREL. 



on low islands. The Thalassidrorna pelagica I have never found breed- 

 ing on any part of our coast ; but it is well known that it resorts to holes 

 on certain of the Shetland Islands, among the blocks and stones of which 

 the beaches are formed ; though it appears that in some spots, where the 

 fisherman are in the habit of destroying them, many resort to the elevated 

 fissures of the rocks, where also a few of the Forked-tailed species occa- 

 sionally breed. The latter then, though more abundant in America, be- 

 longs to Europe also. Wilson was not aware that the species now 

 named after him was any thing else than " the Stormy Petrel, Procellaria 

 pelagica of Linnaeus ;■" and he remarks that it " is found over the whole 

 Atlantic ocean, from Europe to North America, at all distances from 

 land, and in all weathers." 



To my learned friend the Prince of Musignano, the scientific world 

 is indebted for a Memoir on Petrels, in which he has clearly shewn the 

 specific differences of the three species mentioned above, of which he has 

 also given figures, as well as those of the bills and feet nearly of the natural 

 size. But the artist who drew these birds for him, or the engraver, 

 committed an error in representing the present bird as the largest of the 

 three. 



Wilson's Petrel breeds on some small islands situated off the southern 

 extremity of Nova Scotia, and called " Mud Islands," but which are 

 formed of sand and light earth, scantily covered with grass. Thither the 

 birds resort in great numbers, about the beginning of June, and form bur- 

 rows of the depth of two or two and a half feet, in the bottom of which 

 is laid a single white egg, a few bits of dry grass, scarcely deserving the 

 name of a nest, having been placed for its reception. The egg measures 

 an inch and a half in length, by seven-eighths of an inch in breadth, is 

 almost equally rounded at both ends, and has a pure white colour. These 

 Petrels copulate on the water, in the same manner as the Hyperborean 

 Phalarope. By the beginning of August the young follow their parents 

 to sea, and are then scarcely distinguishable from them. During in- 

 cubation, they remain in the burrows, or at their entrance, rarely going 

 to seek for food before the dusk. 



On wing this species is more lively than the Forked-tailed, but less so 

 than the Common Stormy Petrel. It keeps its wings nearly at right an- 

 gles with its body, and makes considerable use of its feet, particularly 

 during calm weather, when it at times hops or leaps for several feet, or 

 pats the water, whilst its wings are extended upwards with a fluttering 



