>M 



LONG-LEGGED or WILSON'S PETREL 



OCEANITES OCEANICUS {Kuhl). 



Procellavia oceanica, Kuhl, Bcitr. Zool. p. 136 (1820). 

 Thalassidroma wilsonii, Macg. v. p. 456. 

 Oceanites oceanicus, Yarr. ed. 4, iv. p. 48 ; Dresser, viii. 

 p. 505. 



This Petrel, about whose habits I know nothing from 

 personal observation, has been met with occasionally in 

 England, and it is not improbable that it may have 

 sometimes escaped special notice or record, from having 

 been mistaken for a more common British species of the 

 family to which it belongs. I quote from the 4th 

 edition of ' Yarrell ' to the effect that it has been found 

 breeding on Kerguelen Island, and that its range appears 

 to extend over the South Atlantic to Australia and New 

 Zealand, and across the South Pacific to Chili and Peru. 

 In the North Atlantic it is common along the American 

 coasts, visiting the West Indies and Mexico. These 

 statements are followed by a detailed and very interesting 

 account of the breeding-habits of this Petrel as observed 

 on Kerguelen Island by the Rev. A. E. Eaton. I gather 

 from these details that the general habits of this species 



