AXn NEIGHBOURHOOD. 255 



was caused by the stranding of a dead whale, which 

 was accompanied by a small flock of these birds, who 

 remained to breed. He could not fix the exact date 

 of this occurrence, but, although he said that it took 

 place more than twenty years before his visit to us, 

 there can be little doubt that June 1878, as above 

 quoted from Yarrell, is the correct date. This species 

 breeds in abundance in Iceland, and in smaller 

 numbers in the Fseroe Islands. In the winter months 

 it is to be met with, occasionally in considerable 

 numbers, in the North Sea, on the fishing banks off 

 our eastern coasts, and has been met with as far to 

 the southward as Cette, in S. France. The occur- 

 rences of the Fulmar inland are of course irregular 

 and exceptional, and only caused by stress of weather. 

 There appear to be two distinct phases of plumage 

 in this species ; for details I must refer my readers 

 to the authority from whom I have quoted almost 

 the whole of this article. In the month of January, 

 1880, two Fulmars were sent alive to me in London 

 from Leadenhall Market. I deposited them in the 

 Zoological Gardens, where they lived for a few 

 weeks. These birds were captured off the coast of 

 Suffolk by a fishing-smack, and are the only living 

 specimens that I have ever certainly seen. 



215. FORKED-TAILED PETREL. 



Procellaria leucorrhoa. 



Several vague notices of the occurrence of " Stormy 

 Petrels " in our county have reached me, but I can 

 write with certainty of at least four instances in 

 which the present species has been met with in 



