400 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



Oceans, has occasionally, but rather rarely, occurred as a 

 straggler to our shores. Besides these smaller species we 

 have the Fulmar, a fine bird with gull-like plumage, whose 

 breeding-place in the British Islands is on St. Kilda ; and 

 the various Shearwaters [Pujffinus)^ Petrel-like birds, of 

 which the Manx Shearwater is indigenous and the com- 

 monest representative of the family on our Devonshire 

 waters. Occasionally in the autumn the southern coasts 

 of the county are visited by two larger species, the Greater 

 and the Sooty Shearwaters, the former sometimes appear- 

 ing in great flocks off Plymouth, and then not being seen 

 again for years. In spite of these birds being sometimes 

 very numerous a little distance from land they are but 

 rarely obtained upon the coast, except after violent gales, 

 when examples of our native species, and, at rarer intervals, 

 a chance specimen of some Petrel of the southern hemi- 

 sphere, are blown inland. We possess examples of the 

 Storm- and Leach's Petrels, as well as of the Fulmar, all 

 obtained after rough weather in the streets of Barnstaple, 

 and the two former have also been found in the streets of 

 the city of Exeter. Oceanic birds may be expected to 

 occur from all parts of the world upon the English 

 shores, when driven out of their ordinary course by storms ; 

 hence the appearance upon the list of British Birds of 

 such southern species as Wilsons Petrel., Biisky Shear- 

 water, Cape Pigeon^ and Capped and Bulwers Petrels^ 

 all blown northwards from their usual haunts, and all of 

 them unconnected with the Ornis of our latitudes. Of 

 these, Wilson's Petrel is the only one which has been 

 detected on the Devonshire coasts. The Ilev. Charles 

 Swainson informs us that " the Petrel is so named from the 

 French petrel, a diminutive oiPetre, i. e. Peter; and the 

 allusion is to the Apostle walking on the Sea of Galilee. 

 Whilst skimming along the waves its legs hang down, and 



