THE STORM PETREL. 425 



their occurrence on a more ordinary occasion in the very centre of 

 England."^ 



On questioning our bird-preservers respecting the condition of 

 the storm petrels skinned by them, they stated, as was anticipated, 

 that they had obtained them in excellent, as well as poor condi- 

 tion. When a storm, coming suddenly on, drives them to land, 

 the birds may be expected to be in good order, as they may 

 the reverse when only driven inland after its continuance for 

 some time. 



Mr. Harry D. S. Goodsir, of Edinburgh, informed me that in 

 the month of October 1843, hundreds of these birds appeared 

 about Anstruther, on the coast of Eifeshire, after a storm from 

 the east. Some of them appeared about the to\A'n, but as the 

 storm died away, they gradually went farther out to sea. He one 

 day followed them, and in a heavy sea captured thirt}', by flinging 

 pieces of the liver of cod-fish over the gunnel of the boat, 

 when several fighting for the food were caught at a single sweep 

 of a landing-net : single birds, too, were captured by the hands 

 of the boatmen. The following day my friend took about fifty 

 in the same manner, and many more might have been procured, 

 had he not cried, " hold, enough." He particularly remarked 

 several of them to be completely immersed in the Mater by the 

 impetus with which they descended from the air upon the food. 

 He preserved a number of specimens in spirits, with one of which 

 I was favoui'ed. 



In the month of April, 1841, several small storm petrels came 

 under my observation in the ]\Iediterranean, though not so iiear 

 that the species could be determined. On tJie 16 th, one of small 

 size appeared, flying lilce a swift {Q/pselus) over the surface of the 

 water, to the southward of the Straits of Messina ; on the 23rd, 

 when about eighty miles east of Malta, two or three were seen at 

 some distance flying like swallows, and a couple of others were 



* In tlie ' Magazine of Natural History ' for ] 832 (p. 283), two petrels are re- 

 corded to have been found dead at Birmingham in December 1831 ; one was dis- 

 covered in a street of the town, the other at a few miles' distance. TJic Kcv. ]\Ir. 

 Ercc of Allesly, who saw the former specimen in V\'^caver's Museum, has informed 

 us that it is the fork-tailed species, T. Jiullockii. — Ibid. p. 733. 



