THE MANX SHEARWATER. 
411 
them some time previously. They were particularly scarce this 
year during the whole period of their visit, although mackerel 
have been unusually abundant ; on the 21st of September, it was 
remarked by my correspondent that none had been seen lately. 
Four Manx petrels, killed on the Dublin coast, have come 
under my notice — one obtained by Mr. Massey of the Pigeon- 
house Fort, in the bay, in July 1833 ; a second in April 1835 ; 
a third in the summer of 1836 (preserved in the University Mu- 
seum) ; and a fourth obtained at the island of Lambay, in June 
1848. This was one of a couple taken out of a hole in the cliffs 
there by Mr. R. J. Montgomery. No eggs were found on the 
day of his visit, but the species was believed to be breeding there. 
The inhabitants of the island questioned by him said they had 
never seen the birds before. In 1849, they were again there. 
My correspondent, writing on the 5th of June, stated, after having 
visited the island, that four had been taken out of the holes and m 
killed by boys. Mr. Watters, when at Lambay in the last week 
of June 1850, was told that these petrels visit this island some 
years only, and breed there ; — their eggs were correctly described 
by his informant, according to whom there were about a dozen 
birds last year ; and fifty, twelve years before. 
One of these shearwaters was seen by Mr. R. Ball near the 
Tusker lighthouse, on the Wexford coast, as we were proceeding 
by steam-vessel from Dublin to Cork, on the 15th of August, 
1843. Early in May 1845, a considerable number of them were 
observed in Wexford Harbour, during one day ; but on the 
following they were gone ;*■ — doubtless on their northern mi- 
gration. On the same day that the two great petrels were ob- 
served off Cork Harbour (see p. 409), a number of the common 
species was seen “ so early as twelve at noon.” Two flocks, each 
containing from twenty to twenty-five birds, appeared. One indi- 
vidual, which was wounded, dived several times on being pursued, 
and disgorged two sprats and the entrails of a fish.t In the f Fauna 
of the county of Cork/ Dr. Harvey remarks, that “ On an evening 
in the autumn of 1838, I watched for a long time a number of 
f Mr. Robert Warren, jun. 
* Mr. Poole. 
