The Petrels . 
2I 5 
Bulwer’s Petrel. Wilson’s Petrel. The Fork-tailed Petrel. 
THE FORK-TAILED 
STORM-PETREL. 
( Oceanodroma 
lercorrhoa.) 
The distinguishing character of ‘ Leach’s Petrel,’ as this 
species is often called, is the forked tail. It is a larger bird 
than the Storm Petrel, and has a short tarsus, which is not 
so long as the middle toe and claw. It breeds on the islands 
off the west of Scotland, the outer Hebrides and St. Kilda, 
and has been known to nest in Ireland on the Blasquet Isles, off the coast of Kerry, 
Its range extends throughout the temperate seas of the Northern Hemisphere, and 
in winter it wanders southwards. On St. Kilda Leach's Petrel makes a slight nest 
of dry grass, and lays a single egg, which is white with a zone of minute lilac- 
coloured dots, and measures about an inch-and-a-half in length. 
This species, which is an inhabitant of the tropical seas, 
1,1 ’ 1 ' has been found on one occasion in England, a single specimen 
STORM-PETREL. 
( Oceanodroma castro.) 
having been picked up 
dead on the beach at 
Littlestone, in Kent, 
in December, 1895. 
This specimen is now 
in the collection ot 
Mr. Boyd Alexander. 
The species is not 
uncommon in Madeira 
and the neighbouring- 
islands, and has been 
The White-bellied Storm-Petrel. The Madeira Storm-Petrel. 
