420 LARID^. 



side left ; the manufacturer, ten or twelve years of age, came 

 forward, seriously claiming the reward of a shilling for this fork-tail. 

 I was told by the late Mr. John Niramo, of Eoundstone, re- 

 specting the Galway coast, that a few pair breed in Deer Island, 

 and the adjacent llards, or Cruagh, rocky islets. The nest is 

 situated under stones, and a single egg deposited on the ground. 

 When at sea, off that coast, he very rarely, and only in stormy 

 weather, met with this species, which is there called Martin-oil, a 

 name Thai. Leachii also bears. With respect to the Hards, I 

 have since learned from Dr. Tarran, that he and the Eev. 

 George llobinson, who accompanied liim to Connemara, in the 

 summer of 1844-, had two storm petrels brought to them alive on 

 the 1st of August, which were captui'ed in their nests under 

 stones, wdiere more might have been procured. " It was no difficult 

 task to take the poor birds from the crevices of the rocks : they 

 seemed to labour under complete paralysis, as if unable to stir 

 from tlieir nests, or make the slightest effort to escape." In 

 August 1838, I was favoured by the Rev. T. Knox with the skin 

 of one of these birds, of which a couple had been sent to him 

 from SybiFs Head, county Kerry : at the Blasquet Islands, off 

 this coast, a petrel has long been known to breed, and this speci- 

 men suggested that it is Thai, pelagica. In Smithes ' History of 

 the county of Kerry,' printed in 1756, we have the following 

 notice : — " There is a small bird which is said to be peculiar to 

 these islands, called by the Irish, Goiirder, the English name of 

 which I am at a loss for, nor do I find it mentioned by natu- 

 ralists. It is somewhat larger than a sparrow, the feathers of the 

 back are dark, and those of the belly wliite ; the bill is straight, 

 short, and thick ; and it is web-footed. When they are first 

 taken, the country-people affirm that they cast up about a tea- 

 spoonful of a very fetid oil, out of their bills : they are almost 

 one lump of fat ; when roasted, of a most delicious taste, and are 

 reckoned to exceed an ortolan, for which reason the gentry here- 

 abouts caU them the Irish ortolan : these birds are worthy of 

 being transmitted a great way to market, for ortolans, it is 

 well known, are brought from France to supply the markets 



