414 I.ARIDM. 



' Constantinople/ — " one reason why tliey have escaped the close 

 attention of naturalists is^ that no person is permitted to kill any 

 bird upon the Bosphorus without incurring the displeasure of the 

 Turks ;" and, as further stated by the Bishop of Norwich, " an 

 additional reason for the respect in which they are held by tjie 

 Turks is, that, in consequence probably of their restless life, they 

 are supposed to be bodies animated by condemned souls, thus 

 doomed for ever to frequent the scenes of their former existence ;" 

 — they are in fact called " damned souls/^ These shearwaters are 

 fully treated of in the ' Familiar History of Birds ' by this author, 

 who, possessing a specimen, believed it to be the Procellaria cine- 

 rea, but on a later examination, since the genus became better 

 known, it was said to be P. ohseuriis.'^ My friend Mr. H. E. 

 Strickland, having noticed the bird of the Bosphorus as the P. an- 

 gloruvi (Zoological Proceedings, 1836, p. 101), I wrote to know if 

 he still considered it that species. He replied, Sept. 13th, 1850, 

 " I have just re-examined the bird I shot on the Bosphorus in 

 March 1836, and it is decidedly P. anglonim -, the beak measures 

 If inches to the frontal feathers ; the wing 9 inches." It is added, 

 " As both this and P. ohseurus are known to inhabit the Mediter- 

 ranean, I have no doubt that both frequently migrate up and 

 down the Bosphorus, and as their mode of flight and general ap- 

 pearance are similar, they have indiscriminately obtained the name 

 of oisemix damnes.^' 



On several days in the middle of May 1841, I had the gratifi- 

 cation of seeing in both the localities named, " strings " of these 

 birds — for they all flew in single file— rapidly winging their 

 way just above the surface of the water. Once or twice only did 

 I see one touch that element, and then but for a moment, though 

 flocks were in sight all day from an early hour of the morning. 

 The singular feature, as it seems to me, connected with these 

 birds, is, their flying in the manner described during the entire 

 day, in bright as well as cloudy weather ; and not their being 

 never seen to feed, for like the rest of their tribe, they are doubt- 



* Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1843, p. 70. 



