2f2 



STORMY PETREL. 



stormy weather in November and December last 

 (1824) many specimens were killed in tlie inland 

 counties of England ; one is in the possession of J. E. 

 Bicheno, Esq., killed at Newbury, and another was 

 shot between Blackfriars and Westminster Bridges. 



Temminck asserts that they are only known to 

 breed within the Arctic Circle ; but their eggs have 

 been taken from under the parent bird in Cornwall, 

 and in the Islets of Zetland, as noticed by Montagu ; 

 thus proving them to be truly indigenous to Britain. 

 Again, Mr. Scarth, as related in the Linnean Trans- 

 actions, while on a small uninhabited island in Ork- 

 ney, in passing over a tract of peat moss in the month 

 of August, where he was induced to go, by hearing 

 a whirring sound somewhat resembling that of a 

 spinning-wheel, found a nest in a small hole in the 

 ground, of very simple construction, being little more 

 than a few fragments of shells laid on the bare turf ; 

 the eggs two in number, round and white, and large 

 in proportion : on its first seizure the bird squirted 

 out of her mouth an oily substance, of a very rancid 

 smell. During four days' confinement in a cage she 

 would eat nothing; but having observed that she 

 drew the feathers of the breast through the beak 

 frequently, Mr. S. was induced to smear the breast 

 with oil ; he afterwards placed a saucer of oil in the 

 cage, and he found that she regularly extracted the 

 oil by dipping her breast in the vessel, and then 

 sucking the feathers as before. In this way he kept 

 the bird for three months. She sometimes made the 

 same purring noise which first attracted notice, and 

 sometimes whistled very shrilly. 



