458 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



birds which had been washed up dead on the outside of Walney 

 Island were collected and taken to Williams, a working black- 

 smith, of Barrow-in-Furness. It was Williams who received 

 the Spotted Eagle which was washed ashore at Walney in 1875 

 (cf. Mitchell, Birds of Lancashire, p. 109), and I know that he 

 has always been in the habit of stuffing a few of these birds ; 

 for example, when visiting him in November 1888, I found his 

 house full of Guillemots and other birds that had just been 

 brought to him from Walney. On the present occasion the 

 birds brought to him were various, but being hardly con- 

 valescent from influenza, and out at his work all day, he only 

 skinned two Petrels, a Little Auk, and one other bird. 1 He 

 skinned these birds as well as he could, for they were not fresh, 

 and put them by in a glass-topped box until I should call, which 

 was not until the beginning of the following July. He then 

 showed them to me, and offered to give them to me, as he con- 

 sidered that he could not mount such rough skins to his 

 satisfaction. I had great difficulty in inducing him to accept 

 half a sovereign for the birds, and he was then anxious to make 

 me a present of a white Turdus iliacus, as he thought I was 

 paying him too much. I at once recognised the smaller Petrel 

 as Oceanites oceanicus ; but not knowing the larger bird, I sent 

 the two skins to Mr. Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., just as I received 

 them, the sand of Walney still adhering to their feathers, espe- 

 cially to those of the smaller bird. Mr. Salvin, whose great 

 kindness I specially desire to acknowledge, has not only 

 identified the unknown bird as a typical example of Pelago- 

 droma marina, which he thinks may perhaps breed in the 

 Canary group, but has compared both skins with the British 

 Museum series, and has further favoured me with some very 

 valuable notes, of which I now avail myself. 



' Pelagodroma marina was first noticed during Captain Cook's 

 first voyage, and a specimen obtained on the 23d December 

 1768 in lat. 37° S., off the east coast of South America, about 

 opposite the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. It was sketched by 

 Parkinson, one of the artists who accompanied Captain Cook 



1 The exact part of the island where the Petrels were found is the north- 

 western beach, nearly opposite the windmill. 



