THE STORM PETREL. 
421 
of London” ! Whether or not this hint was taken advantage of, 
later historians do not inform us. 
In a communication descriptive of a portion of the West of 
Kerry, made by Mr. William Andrews to the Natural History 
Society of Dublin, and published in f Saunders's Newsletter 9 of 
November 9th, 1841, it is remarked — “In the month of August, 
the islands [Blasquets] are deserted by the feathered tribe, with 
the exception of the storm petrel (T. pelagica). This little bird 
breeds there twice in the season — in the month of June and again 
in August — laying but one egg each time of incubation. Num- 
bers of them may easily be taken during the day in holes under 
rocks and in banks — the whistling of the young bird, or the 
purring challenge of the old, betraying their retreat. I did not meet 
with more than one young bird in each nest, several were scarcely 
freed from the shell [no date is given]. The young birds are 
singularly large and full in appearance, and contain an immensity 
of oily matter, which renders it difficult to preserve a specimen. 
The old birds, at the time they have their young, do not eject the 
oil so generally as at other times on being captured ; although 
strong and untiring on the wing, yet on the ground they appear 
feeble, staggering, and resting on the tarsi. Placing several on 
the ground, sheltered from the breeze, I found that they were 
wholly unable to rise. They are named by the islanders, Gour- 
dal .” Mr. K. Chute, who has visited the large Skellig rock 
twice or thrice in the breeding season, states that the stormy 
petrel nidifies there. Since the lighthouse was erected, this bird 
and the Manx shearwater have been the chief birds resorting to it 
for that purpose. 
My notes bear witness as follows to the occurrence of the storm 
petrel on the coast or inland, omitting for the present the indi- 
viduals obtained after the great hurricane of January 1839. Pirst, 
with respect to the north-east of the island : — Mr. Samuel Lyle 
one day, either in the winter of 1829-30, or the following, when 
out in a yawl for the purpose of wigeon- shooting in Belfast Bay, 
shot two of these birds — which he describes as flying like bats ; — - 
one was killed about a mile from the town, and the other as 
