THE FORK-TAILED PETREL. 
415 
less night-feeding birds. Temminck does not give any indication 
of his being aware of these birds appearing here in the manner 
described. 
THE PORK-TAILED PETREL. 
Thalassidroma LeacJiii, Temm.* (sp.) 
Procellaria ,, „ 
Is of occasional occurrence in all quarters of the island. 
Those obtained in the north shall first be noticed. In the winter 
of 1831 a specimen was found dead — but in excellent condition 
and plumage — near Lisburn. During a storm in the winter of 
1833-4, one was sprung from a bog near Downpatrick; and 
shot ; the fowler imagining from the forked tail that it was some 
kind of swallow. In August 1843; the gamekeeper at Tollymore 
Park informed me that about ten years before that time; he found 
one of these birds lying dead in “ a hollow 33 among the moun- 
tains of Mourne. One shot on the 16th of December; 1834; at 
Conswater Point; Belfast Bay, about a mile from the town, came 
into my possession; and on the 10th of April; 1838; I obtained a 
recent bird; which was found dead near Waringstown, county of 
Down. There is considerable difference in the size of these two 
specimens; as well as slight differences in plumage : the former is 
8J inches in length ; the latter 7J, the size of the individual de- 
scribed in YarrelFs work. Mr. H. H. Dombrain; one day in 
September 1836, when in a revenue cruiser off Arranmore, coast 
of Donegal; saw altogether about a dozen of these birds, two of 
which occasionally appeared at a time. 
On the 16th of December, 1831, two fork- tailed petrels were 
* Dr. Fleming, when giving the name of Bullockii to this species, in his - His- 
tory of British Animals, 5 p, 136, states, that Dr. Leach having intimated to him 
that Temminck proposed to name the species Leachii, he “ remonstrated, but in 
vain, against his acceptance of a compliment to which he had no claim Mr. 
Selby, in the same spirit, adopted the name bestowed on the species by Fleming. 
If the bird were to be “ called after 55 any individual, Bullock being its discoverer 
certainly had the best right to be so honoured, but, according to the stern law of pri- 
ority, the term Leachii must be adopted. 
