4352 Dublin Natural History Society. 



Castlemain Bay, County of Kerry. He had since traced every circumstance fully 

 confirmatory of its capture there ; he regretted, however, that the windpipe or trachea 

 had not been preserved, nor the sternum, which might have afforded additional inte- 

 rest to the observations. Apparently, the membranaceous duck would possess great 

 power of flight, although its wings were extremely short, as in the Fuligulinee, 

 the scaups or pochards, &c, whose powers of swimming and diving are great. 

 Through the kindness of Dr. Farran, he had the opportunity of exhibiting and com- 

 paring fine specimens of the gadwall and of the shoveller duck. These beautiful 

 birds, like the membranaceous duck, were remarkable in having the laminae of the 

 mandibles largely developed, and which were strongly so in the gadwall, a provision 

 suiting them to their peculiar habits of feeding. The membranaceous duck, whose 

 bill was extremely soft in its substance, seemed only suited to feed upon the softer 

 Mollusca and gelatinous marine animals ; thus the finely pectinated laminae retain the 

 minute creatures upon which the bird feeds, allowing only the watery portion to escape. 

 In the paper before alluded to he had mentioned the capture, off the Island of Valentia, 

 of the dusky petrel (Puffinus obscurus), and he was now, through the kindness of Mr. 

 and Mrs. Blackburn, of Valentia, enabled to exhibit the specimen, which had been 

 beautifully preserved. This bird, the Puffinus assimilis of Gould, a native of Norfolk 

 Island and the eastern shores of Australia, is now first recorded as captured in Europe, 

 never having been known north of the Mediterranean. It is, however, plentiful at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and probably on the north-west coast of Africa. The Puffinus 

 obscurus is extremely like the Manx petrel (Puffinus Anglorum), but is readily dis- 

 tinguishable by its diminutive proportions, although sometimes the dusky petrel is a 

 southern species, while the Manx petrel is a northern. Mr. Andrews had also the 

 opportunity of exhibiting a specimen of the Manx shearwater, with the egg, taken in 

 one of the cliffs on the Island of Valentia. These birds were always considered to 

 breed on the Skellig Islands, but Mr. Andrews had never known the eggs to be 

 obtained there. An egg had been sent to him taken from the smaller Skellig Island, 

 and observed as belonging to a petrel, and stated to be that of the Manx shearwater, 

 but on comparing it with the egg sent by Mr. Blackburn, it was of much smaller size, 

 and not so oval as that of the egg of the Manx. On examination of the eggs in the 

 British Museum, Mr. Andrews found one to correspond with it, and marked as the 

 egg of Bulwer's petrel {Thalassidroma Bulweri). It was gratifying to have, so well 

 authenticated by Mr. Blackburn, the egg of the Manx shearwater, as it was but little 

 known to the naturalists of this country. The eggs of the petrels are large in propor- 

 tion to the size of the birds, and it would be extremely interesting yet to prove that 

 the egg of the petrel that had been sent to him was that of T. Bulweri. Having no- 

 ticed such rare instances on the west coast, discovered within the last year, we may 

 naturally expect to meet the other species of the petrels on that coast. The petrels on 

 the south-west coast seemed principally to breed on the smaller Skellig Island, and on 

 the Islands of Innismacalaun and Innisnabioe, two of the Blasket Islands. In con- 

 clusion, Mr. Andrews could not but observe on the extreme interest of the birds 

 exhibited this evening ; two of the rarest additions to British Ornithology that had 

 been made for years. The dusky petrel excited great interest when exhibited by Mr. 

 Yarrell, at the Linnean Society, in June last ; and this Society was much indebted to 

 the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Blackburn, of Valentia, in now affording the opportunity 

 of seeing the specimen, and of that of the Manx shearwater. Living in a wild and 

 remote retreat, Mi. and Mrs. Blackburn, with their daughter, devoted much of their 



