467 
ir. 
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE DUSKY PETREL 
OR SHEARWATER {PUFFINUS OBSCURUS) 
IN NORFOLK IN 1858— 
ITS FIRST KNOWN APPEARANCE IN ENGLAND. 
Ry Henry Stevenson, F.L.S., Y.P. 
Rend 28th November, 1882, 
In tho ‘Zoologist’ for 1858 (p. G09G) I recorded tlie appearance, far 
inland in this county, of a Petrel, which I felt little doubt at’the 
time was an example of this rare species (rare, at least, on tho 
shores of Groat Rritain), and which on examination recently, by 
the best authorities on these oceanic wanderers, has proved to be 
what I first described it. 
IMy original notes on this interesting^ bird may be thus sum- 
marized. About the 10th of April of the above year it was found 
dead by a gamekeeper on tho Earsham Estate, situated close to tlyj 
south-eastern boundary of Norfolk, and within a mile of the well- 
known town of Bungay in Suffolk.^ Captain Meade, who at that 
time hired the Hall and the shooting, brought the bird, in the flesh, 
to the late Mr. John Sayer, birdstufter, of St. Giles, Norwich, who 
at once observed its marker! diflerence in size from any Manx 
Shearwaters he had ever seen. Being from home, myself, at the 
time, I did not examine the bird in a fresh state ; but I saw it 
within a week of its being stufled, and its resemblance to the figure 
of the Dusky Petrel in the third edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ 
and in the supplement to the second edition (1856), struck me 
forcibly at first sight ; confirmed, to a great extent, by the comparison 
of its measurements (though a mounted specimen) with the des- 
cription given of the species by that author. 
* Its flight inland, therefore, from the coast would probably have been 
between Lowestoft and Southwold. 
