Bxj the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



177 



specimen having made its appearance in Wiltshire, and that was 

 taken by a bc^ at Market Lavington from a hole in a hayfield and 

 carried to Mr. Elgar Sloper at Devizes. 



" Wilson's Petrel." ( Thalassidroma Wilsoni.) The scientific 

 name " Thalassidroma" sufficiently describes the habit of the spe- 

 cies which compose this genus, of running on the surface of the 

 waves; whence too their English and French name of " Petrel " 

 is derived, in allusion to the incident narrated in the .Gospels, of 

 the Apostle St. Peter walking on the water. Wilson's Petrel is 

 one of our rarest British birds, but three or four specimens alone 

 having been obtained in this country : it is therefore with especial 

 gratification that I am able to record, on the unimpeachable testi- 

 mony of the late Mr. Marsh, that a fine specimen of this bird was 

 picked up dead from exhaustion in Sutton Benger Mead, in Novem- 

 ber, 1849. There were no remarkable gales blowing at that time, 

 but it was observed that it was just previous to a long continued 

 frost. 



" Forked tailed Petrel." (Thalassidroma Leachii.J I am again 

 indebted to the pen of Mr. Henry Blackmore for the knowledge of 

 the occurrence of this species in Wiltshire, the account of which 

 I extract from the pages of the Zoologist. 1 That gentleman has 

 been so fortunate as to obtain two specimens near Salisbury, of 

 this somewhat rare species : one which was picked up on the 27th 

 of October, 1859, by a railway porter on the Great Western 

 Railway, two miles from the city, having apparently met its death 

 by flying against the wires of the electric telegraph : the other 

 supposed to have been killed in the same manner, as it was also 

 found near the railway embankment with its wing broken, on the 

 25th of November, 1866, at East Grimstead, a village about six 

 miles from Salisbury. All these Petrels very much resemble in 

 appearance as well as habits their more common congener next to 

 be described. 



"Storm Petrel." [Thalassidroma pelagica.) The last bird on 

 the British list is also the smallest of the Order of Swimmers, and 

 this is the common Petrel which is known to all, and which sailors 

 1 Zoologist— New Series, vol. for 1866, p. 101. 



