THE STORM PETREL. 423 



casion, so many as twenty in a flock. They were once so tame, 

 ^ when the weather was gloomy, though not very stormy, as to 

 come close to the gunnel of the small boat that he was in, to which 

 they were afterwards attracted by bits of sprats laid there for 

 them. One bird ventured twice or thrice to carry off portions of 

 the fish. On another occasion one appeared desirous of perching 

 on the mast of the boat, and made several vain attempts to do so. 

 During a prevalence of rather stormy weather, in November 1835, 

 a storm petrel was found dead near Bandon, county Cork. In a 

 garden near Waterford, and five miles from the sea, a dead one was 

 picked up in October 1848."^ This species is remarked to be some- 

 times seen after very stormy weather in Bantry Bay, and frequently 

 in fine weather off Cape Clear and the Mizen. On the eastern coast 

 it does not thus appear : — Mr. R. J. Montgomery, who has had 

 much experience in shooting about the bays of Dublin and 

 Drogheda, never met with the bird but once — early in Sep- 

 tember 1850, at the latter place — when a single individual 

 skimmed close past the boat in which he w^as, while reloading 

 his gun after having fired at a tern. 



In a communication which I made to the 3rd volume of the 

 'Annals of Natural History' (p. 182), entitled— " Note on the 

 effects of the hurricane of January 7th, 1839, in Ireland, on some 

 Birds, Kshes, &c.," it w^as said of the species at present under con- 

 sideration — "As may be conjectured, storm petrels {Thalassidroiiice) 

 were taken in many parts of the country ; and chiefly during the 

 latter part of the day of the 7th after the hurricane had ceased. 

 At two o'clock P.M., or just about its termination, one of these 

 birds was picked up alive, but in a very exhausted state, in one of 

 the streets of Belfast, and twow'ere found dead near the Castle, 

 Lisburu. On the 10th inst., two others, one of which I saw, and 

 found to be T. pelagica, were taken — the one alive, the other 

 dead — beside a spring-well at Seymour Hill, about four miles 

 from Belfast. Near Saintfield in the county of Down, distant 

 about ten miles, a petrel was said to have been obtained after the 

 bui'ricaue. 



* Dr. K.J. Burkilt. 



