214 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



mandy than has been generally recognized. It crosses the North Sea to touch 

 Heligoland as a rare straggler, and wanders north to the coast of Norway. 

 It seems to miss the Faeroes. Its presence in Iceland has been reported by 

 Mr. Pearson ("Ibis," 1895, p. 249). 



The Fork-tailed Petrel spends the greater portion of its life on the high 

 seas, far out of sight of land ; but when the hurricanes of winter subside, 

 this Petrel abandons its wholly oceanic mode of life, and repairs to remote 

 and storm-swept islands for pairing purposes. It is nocturnal, or at least 

 crepuscular, when ashore ; preferring only to visit or leave its nesting burrow 

 during the evening and early morning hours. It is described as sometimes 

 nesting under ruined walls, as for example on North Rona ; or, again, among 

 the roots of trees, as on an island in Fundy Bay ; or, exceptionally, in 

 deep holes in steep basaltic rocks ; but its favourite manner of nesting is to 

 excavate a more or less winding burrow in soft mould, beneath a covering of 

 green turf. This Petrel is social in a marked degree in the breeding season ; 

 hence we find that the headquarters of a colony of Fork-tailed Petrels con- 

 sists of a large series of burrows, many probably untenanted, which literally 

 honeycomb the slope or brae in which the birds are nestling. It is not 

 known that the Fork-tailed Petrel breeds on any island off the coasts of 

 England ; it undoubtedly nests on the west of Ireland, since eggs have been 

 obtained from the Blasket Isles, Co. Kerry. In Scotland, the late Captain 

 Cameron informed me that he had found this Petrel breeding in the Island 

 of Rum. 



Mr. R. Gray, in 1867, referred to this Petrel as breeding on the Island 

 of Mingalay in "holes and cracks in the dry peat on the tops of the cliffs;" 

 but this is not accepted as applicable to the present time by Dr. MacRury, 

 though he indicates that the Fork-tailed Petrel still occurs round the Barra 

 coast, and " a few may be breeding in the southern islands." As long ago as 

 1847, the late Sir W. K. Milner found the Fork-tailed Petrel nesting on the 

 Dune, at St. Kilda. At the present day the St. Kilda men anticipate the arrival 

 of a Glasgow steamer by securing a few Petrels and their eggs, in order that 

 they may be sold to visitors. The birds are often kept alive for several days, 

 and many eggs are destroyed. Fifty years have elapsed since the St. Kilda men 

 began to raid the Petrels, and for the last fifteen years the raids have been con- 

 stant ; so that it is surprising that the birds have not deserted their favourite 

 strongholds upon the Dune. They are chiefly abseut from the grassy braes above 

 the sea, nor is this surprising, since the Puffins dominate the more accessible portions 

 cf the island. The breeding gruuud ol the Petrels commences upon the fringe 



