192 PETREL. 



were observed in a small uninhabited Island in Orkney, by Mr. 

 Scarth, in passing over a tract of peat moss, in the month of August; 

 being first led to the enquiry, by hearing a sound somewhat resem- 

 bling that of a spinning wheel, commonly emitted by these birds 

 when hatching. The nest was found in a small hole in the ground, 

 of very simple construction, being little more than a few fragments 

 of shells, laid on the bare turf; the eggs, two in number, round, 

 and white, and large in proportion ; on its first seizure the bird 

 squirted out of her mouth an oily substance, of a very rancid smell. 

 During four days confinement of the bird in a cage, she would eat 

 nothing, but having observed that she drew the the feathers of the 

 breast through the bill frequently, Mr. S. was induced to smear her 

 breast with oil ; he afterwards placed a saucer of oil in the cage, and he 

 found that she regularly extracted the oil, by dipping her breast in 

 the vessel, and then sucking the feathers as before. In this way he 

 kept the bird for three months. It sometimes made the same purring 

 noise which first attracted notice, and sometimes whistled very shrilly.* 

 In the Orknies it is known by the name of Alimonty. 



This bird visits the Isle of Thanet early in the winter ; sometimes 

 in the month of October. Mr. Boys mentioned having one sent to 

 him from thence in January 1782, and another shot at Margate, in 

 Kent, in a storm of wind, among a flock of Hoopoes, in the January 

 following. One in the Leverian Museum was killed at Walthamstow, 

 in Essex. We have also heard of one being shot at Oxford ; and 

 Colonel Montagu mentions having seen one, taken near Marazion, 

 in Cornwall ;f and in the middle of October 1786, one was seen on 

 the banks of the Thames, nearNorthfleet, when a boy threw a stone 

 at it, but it appeared only to have been stunned, for it was brought 

 to me, seemingly unhurt ; I endeavoured to keep it alive in a large 



* Lin. Trans, xiii. 618. f Breeds on the rocky coast of the north of Cornwall ; 



lays one egg, the size of that of the Blackbird, white, with an obscure zone of purplish 

 brown, formed by minute specks at the larger end. — Orn. Diet. Sup. Breeds in all the 

 Isles of Zetland.-— Jd. 



