156 



THE BRITISH 

 EXAMPLE OF BULWER'S PETREL. 



At the Zoological Society on November 15th last, Prof. Newton 

 exhibited the unique British specimen of Bulwer's Petrel [Bulweria 

 columbina), remarking that some doubt having been expressed as to the 

 occurrence of Bulwer's Petrel in this country, announced by Gould in 

 his 'Birds of Europe '(ist of August, 1837), Mr. W. Eagle Clarke 

 determined to investigate the facts; and his search for the specimen in 

 question has been successful. Had it not been for his perseverance 

 and that of Mr. James Carter, of Masham, the specimen would pro- 

 bably have been for ever lost sight of Gould's statement was that 

 the specimen having been found dead on the banks of the Ure, near 

 Tanfield in Yorkshire, on the 8th of May, 1837, was brought to 

 Captain Dalton, of Slenningford near Ripon, a gentleman who had 

 succeeded to a collection of stuffed birds begun by his father. Colonel 

 Dalton, who, curiously enough, sent Bewick the specimen of the 

 Stormy Petrel (also found dead in that neighbourhood) figured and 

 described in his 'British Birds ' (ed. i, ii, pp. 249-251). At the end 

 of last May, Mr. W. E. Clarke applied to Mr. Carter, who found that 

 the Dalton collection had been dispersed by sale just a week before. 

 Fortunately all the cases of stuffed birds had been bought by persons 

 living in Ripon ; and having obtained their names from the auctioneer, 

 Mr. Carter, after many failures and some loss of time, discovered in 

 the possession of Mr. Jacobs, Head-master of the Choir-school in that 

 city, the case and specimen labelled ^Procellaria bulwerii^ which he 

 had bought with others at the Dalton sale. Beyond this fact, however, 

 there was no note or anything to identify the specimen with the object 

 of the search. Mr. Carter thereupon undertook to inquire of the sur- 

 viving members and connexions of the Dalton family, and, fortunately, 

 one of the latter, Mr. George Clarke, Tanfield House, Bedale, a son- 

 in-law of Captain Dalton, was found, who not only remembered the 

 specimen perfectly well, having seen it 'scores of times,' but produced an 

 old manuscript note he had made on the margin of a ' Bewick ' (in which 

 he had been accustomed to record ornithological observations), to the 

 effect that this bird was 'found dead on the Bridge at Tanfield,' and had 

 been given to his father-in-law, who had it ' preserved by the late John 

 Stubbs of Ripon, fishing-tackle maker and bird-stuffer.' Mr. George 

 Clarke also remembered the owner having several times refused the 

 offer of twenty guineas for the specimen, and after his death had 

 looked in vain for the specimen, which, it appears, had been put away 

 in a lumber-room and wholly forgotten. There can, then, be no doubt 

 that this is the very bird found dead at Tanfield. It is now the 

 property of Mr. W. E. Clarke, whose intention it is that it shall be 

 deposited in a Yorkshire museum. NlumTiist, 



2t I^AY^ :a88 



