420 
LAEIDiE. 
side left ; the manufacturer, ten or twelve years of age, came 
forward, seriously claiming the reward of a shilling for this fork-tail. 
I was told by the late Mr. John Nimmo, of Roundstone, re- 
specting the Galway coast, that a few pair breed in Deer Island, 
and the adjacent Hards, or Cruagh, rocky islets. The nest is 
situated under stones, and a single egg deposited on the ground. 
When at sea, off that coast, he very rarely, and only in stormy 
w r eather, met with this species, which is there called Martin-oily a 
name Thai. Leachii also bears. With respect to the Hards, I 
have since learned from Dr. Earran, that he and the Rev. 
George Robinson, who accompanied him to Connemara, in the 
summer of 1844, had two storm petrels brought to them alive on 
the 1st of August, which were captured in their nests under 
stones, where more might have been procured. “ It was no difficult 
task to take the poor birds from the crevices of the rocks : they 
seemed to labour under complete paralysis, as if unable to stir 
from their nests, or make the slightest effort to escape.” In 
August 1838, I was favoured by the Rev. T. Knox with the skin 
of one of these birds, of which a couple had been sent to him 
from Sybil's Head, county Kerry : at the Blasquet Islands, off 
this coast, a petrel has long been known to breed, and this speci- 
men suggested that it is Thai, pelagica. In Smith's f History of 
the county of Kerry/ printed in 1756, we have the following 
notice : — “ There is a small bird which is said to be peculiar to 
these islands, called by the Irish, Gourder , the English name of 
which I am at a loss for, nor do I find it mentioned by natu- 
ralists. It is somewhat larger than a sparrow, the feathers of the 
back are dark, and those of the belly white ; the bill is straight, 
short, and thick ; and it is web-footed. When they are first 
taken, the country-people affirm that they cast up about a tea- 
spoonful of a very fetid oil, out of their bills : they are almost 
one lump of fat ; when roasted, of a most delicious taste, and are 
reckoned to exceed an ortolan , for which reason the gentry here- 
abouts call them the Irish ortolan : these birds are worthy of 
being transmitted a great way to market, for ortolans, it is 
well known, are brought from France to supply the markets 
