BIRDS 457 



WILSON'S PETREL. 



Oceanites oceanicus (Kuhl). 



Mr. T. C. Heysham sent word to Yarrell of the occurrence of 

 a specimen of this Petrel, which is supposed to have been ob- 

 tained in Cumberland. 1 Unfortunately such papers of that 

 deceased naturalist as are forthcoming fail to throw any light 

 upon its history. There can, however, be no doubt that this 

 rare Petrel has occurred within our faunal regions in at least 

 two instances. In the year 1881 one of the servants at Castle- 

 steads found a dead Petrel which he took to his master, Captain 

 Johnson, by whom it was identified as a Wilson's Petrel. Un- 

 luckily this specimen was too far gone for preservation, other- 

 wise Captain Johnson would have mounted it himself. The 

 other specimen was washed up dead on the north-west shore of 

 Walney Island in November 1890, and after being kept for a 

 day or two by the working-man who found it, was taken to 

 Williams, the Barrow blacksmith. It was then very far from 

 fresh, but he made a rough skin of it. The skin was subsequently 

 sent to Mr. O. Salvin, F.R.S., who kindly compared it with the 

 series of Oceanites oceanicus in the British Museum. Mr. Salvin 

 wrote to me that he found the measurements of this specimen ' to 

 be unaccountably small, the wing only measuring 4*9 in. instead 

 of 5*9/ He adds, 'Besides its small dimensions the Walney 

 Island bird has a square tail, but this varies, some specimens 

 having a slightly forked tail, others nearly or quite even. The 

 yellow mark on the webs of the feet is not nearly so well 

 marked as in the ordinary form. The amount of white on the 

 rectrices and on the under tail coverts is about the same as in 

 the rest. The plumage, generally, is dark, due to recent moult.' 



FRIGATE PETREL. 



Pelagodroma marina (Lath.). 



I furnished the following notice of this bird to the Ibis of 

 October 1891:— 



' After a severe gale in November 1890, a number of sea- 

 1 Yarrell, British Birds, vol. iii. p. 516, 1st ed. 



