739° LEACH’S FORK-TAILED PETREL. 
Heligoland, though storm-driven individuals have been taken on 
the coasts of Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Portugal, and 
even as far up the Mediterranean as Sicily ; while the Canaries and 
Madeira are visited. On the further side of the North Atlantic, 
Leach’s Petrel has occurred in Iceland and Greenland ; and it is 
common in America from Labrador to the Bay of Fundy, ranging 
southward to Virginia in winter. It is also found throughout the 
North Pacific, breeding from California to Alaska and the Aleutian 
Islands, as well as in the Commander and Kuril groups, nearer to 
Asia ; and it visits Japan. So far as our present knowledge goes, 
this species is restricted to the Northern hemisphere. No fewer 
than twelve species of Petrels with forked tails are included by 
Salvin in this well-defined genus ; and inasmuch as the bird which 
the Americans call the Fork-tailed Petrel is a different species, I 
have employed the name, Leach’s Petrel, to avoid the perpetuation 
of confusion. 
The egg—white, freckled and zoned with minute rusty spots, and 
measuring about 1°3 by ‘97 in.—is laid in a burrow or hole of some 
kind ; usually in the first half of June. Mr. John Swinburne—and 
afterwards Mr. Harvie-Brown—found a large colony nesting in the 
ruins of a deserted village on North Rona; and there the latter also 
obtained three Storm-Petrels, though these did not appear to have 
eggs. All the Leach’s Petrels proved on dissection to be females, 
but on Grand Menan and other islands in the Bay of Fundy, where 
this species is very abundant, investigations have indicated that the 
male takes part in incubation. When dragged from their holes 
the birds showed little disposition to fly, being apparently dazed by 
the light of day, and when released, they invariably sought some 
dark retreat. A strong musky smell pervades this bird and its 
burrow, as in the preceding species. The food consists of small 
molluscs, crustaceans, and any greasy substances found floating on 
the water. The note resembles the syllables pezor-zeit, pewr-wit. 
The adult has the general plumage dark leaden-black above and 
sooty-black below, with a shade of ash-colour on the wing-coverts 
and the margins of the secondaries, which gives the bird a greyer 
appearance on the wing than the Storm-Petrel; upper tail-coverts 
chiefly white ; tail sooty-black and considerably forked ; bill black, 
legs and feet dusky. Length 8 in.; wing 6 in. The nestling being 
covered with long greyish-brown down, resembles a small long-haired 
mouse rather than a bird, as neither the wings nor the bill are 
visible. 
