468 
It proved, on dissection, to be a male in very poor condition, and 
probably bad been driven so far inland by a gale, and met its death 
through coming in contact, at night, with a tree or some other object 
having a wound on one side of the head, as if from a violent blow 
It showed no appearance of having been shot at j and the feathers, 
except on the spot mentioned, were clean and unruffled ; but the 
inner web of one foot was partially nibbled away, as though a mouse 
or some other vermin had been at it.* Fortunately I noted these 
injuries at the time, which have enabled me to identify the 
specimen again, beyond any doubt, though lost sight of for the last 
thirteen years. Having been brought to the birdstuffer by Captain 
Meade, and returned to him, when mounted and cased, I naturally 
inferred that the Petrel belonged to him ; and hearing some time 
after that he had left England, and all his effects at Earsham had 
been sold off, I presumed that this rarity was lost to us altogether. 
In the absence of the bird itself, I was unable to support my 
previous conviction as to the species ; whilst subsequent accounts 
of extremely small Manx Shearwaters being occasionally met with, 
made me question my own judgment in the first instance ; more 
especially as my acquaintance with that class of marine birds ■was 
somewhat limited at that time. I specially mention this, because it 
will explain why I did not bring the fact of the Dusky Petrel having 
occurred in Norfolk under the notice of either the late Mr. Gould, 
when publishing his ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ or of Mr. Dresser 
for his ‘ Birds of Europe,’ neither of which authors have included 
this species in the above-named publications. The re-discovery of 
the Norfolk specimen was quite accidental. Early in the present 
year, Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., and myself, being separately engaged 
in working out a complete list of the “ Birds of Norfolk,” and com- 
paring notes on the subject, the right of this species to rank 
with other local rarities was questioned, and, “ drawing a bow 
at a venture,” Mr. Gurney put himself in communication with 
Mr. Hartcup of Bungay, who proved to be a trustee for the family 
of the late Sir W. W. Dalling, Bart., and the Earsham Estate. 
From him it was soon elicited that a good many birds killed on 
* This was my impression at the time ; but the examination of a large 
number of Pomatorhine and other Skuas, killed on our coast in 1877, 
showed that the webs of the feet, in this class of birds, are frequently 
mutilated. 
