THE MANX SHEAUWATElt. 411 



them some time previously. They were particularly scarce this 

 year during the whole period of their visit, although mackerel 

 have been unusually abundant; on the 21st of September, it was 

 remarked by my correspondent that none had been seen lately. 



Pour Manx petrels, killed on the Dublin coast, have come 

 under my notice ; — one obtained by Mr. Massey of the Pigeon- 

 house Port, in the bay, in Jul^^ 1833; a second in April 1835 ; 

 a third in the summer of 1836 (preserved in the University Mu- 

 seum) ; and a fourth obtained at the island of Lambay, in June 

 1848. This was one of a couple taken out of a hole in the clitls 

 there by Mr. R. J. Montgomery. No eggs were found on the 

 day of his visit, but the species was believed to be breeding there. 

 The inhabitants of the island questioned by him said they had 

 never seen the birds before. In 1849, they were again there. 

 My correspondent, writing on the 5th of June, stated, after having 

 visited the island, that four had been taken out of the holes and 

 killed by boys. Mr. Watters, when at Lambay in the last week 

 of June 1850, was told that these petrels visit this island some 

 years only, and breed there ; — their eggs were correctly described 

 by his informant, according to whom there were about a dozen 

 birds last year ; and fifty, twelve years before. 



One of these shearwaters was seen by Mr. 11. Ball near the 

 Tusker lighthouse, on the Wexford coast, as we were proceeding 

 by steam-vessel from Dublin to Cork, on the 15th of August, 

 1843. Early in May 1845, a considerable number of them were 

 observed in Wexford Harbour, during one day ; but on the 

 following they were gone;'^ — doubtless on their northern mi- 

 gration. On the same day that the two great petrels were ob- 

 served off Cork Harbour (see p. 409), a number of the common 

 species Avas seen " so early as twelve at noon."" Two flocks, each 

 containing from twenty to twenty -five birds, appeared. One indi- 

 vidual, which was wounded, dived several times on being pursued, 

 and disgorged two sprats and the entrails of a fish.f In the ' Pauna 

 of the county of Cork,' Dr. Harvey remarks, that " On an evening 

 in the autumn of 1838, I watched for a long time a number of 



* Mr. I'oolc. t Wr. Robert Warren, jini. 



