BIRDS 455 



FOEK-TAILED PETEEL. 



Oceanodroma leucorrhoa (Vieill. ). 



This Petrel gets the credit, generally, of being a rarer species 

 on the N.W. coast than is actually the case. At the same time 

 we must not forget that its appearance in the neighbourhood 

 of our coast is chiefly limited to the last months of the year, 

 and bears a direct relation to the prevalence of tempestuous 

 weather in the open Atlantic. It seems to have occurred on one 

 or other portion of our coast almost every autumn, during the 

 last half century. Dr. Gough and T. C. Heysham both identified 

 a few specimens, obtained in the south and north of Lakeland 

 respectively. My inquiries have naturally covered a much 

 wider field than the researches of either of my predecessors. As 

 a natural consequence, I have seen a good many fresh specimens 

 from Morecambe Bay and the shores of Cumberland, as well as 

 others from the interior of Lakeland. In 1889 I examined five 

 local specimens, all obtained in the month of October. Three 

 of them were obtained near Carlisle, one at Silloth, and a fifth 

 at Eavenglass. This last was picked up dead on the 28th of 

 the month. Such figures represent the return of an ordinary 

 year. There are of course seasons in which this Petrel is more 

 than usually numerous. The last days of September 1891 

 witnessed the arrival upon the shores of Western Britain, of 

 large flights of this Petrel. The birds had apparently been 

 induced to travel eastward by the prevalence of wild weather 

 on the open Atlantic. At all events they occurred in varying 

 numbers all along the line from Skye to the Cornish coasts. 

 Several were procured in the neighbourhood of Morecambe Bay, 

 and I examined about sixteen specimens which had been ob- 

 tained on the coast of Cumberland, others being observed 

 battling pluckily against the gale. Two or three specimens 

 turned up far inland, e.g. a Fork-tailed Petrel, which was shot 

 while flying along the edge of Ulleswater Lake on the 1 6th of 

 October. The first that were sent to me from the Solway 

 Firth reached me on the 28th of September. A marked feature 

 of this immigration was that it consisted exclusively of adult 



