until sunset, wlien they start off in search of food, returuiug’ to their mates or young in the morning, and 
feeding them then. 
“ The Fork-tailed Petrel emits its notes night and day, and at not very long intervals. They resemble the 
syllables pewr-wit, peivr-wit. Its flight differs from that of the other two species ” (the common and 
Wilson’s Storm-Petrels), “ being performed in broader wheelings and firmer flappings. It is more shy; and 
when it wheels off, after having approached the stern of a ship, its wanderings are much more extended 
before it returns. I have never seen it fly close around a vessel, as the others are in the habit of doing, 
especially at the approach of night ; nor do I think that it ever alights on the rigging of ships, but spends 
the hours of darkness either on the water or on low rocks or islands. It also less frequently alights on the 
water, or pats with its feet, probably on account of the shortness of its legs, although it frequently allows 
them to hang dowm. In this it resembles the Thalassidroma pelagica \ and Wilson’s Petrel has a similar 
habit during calm weather. I have seen all the three species immerse their head into the water to seize their 
food, and sometimes keep it longer under than I had expected. 
“About the 1st of June the species collect In numbers, and return to their breeding-places. They now 
fly in front of the high rocks, j)assh)g and repassing a thousand times in a day, enter their dark and narrow 
mansions or stand in the passage and emit their cries, and occasionally alight on some broad shelf, and walk as 
if about to fall down, but Avith considerable ease, and at times with rapidity. Noav and then the mated birds 
approach each other, and, I believe, disgorge some food into each others mouths. They collect grasses and 
pebbles, of whicb they form a flat nest, on which a single white egg is deposited, w'hich measures an inch 
and a quarter in length by seven-eighths in breadth, is nearly equally rounded at both ends, and looks very 
large for the size of the bird. When you pass close to the rocks in which the birds are, you easily hear 
their shrill querulous notes ; but the report of a gun silences them at once, and induces those on the ledges 
to betake themselves to their holes. 
“ The Fork-tailed Petrel, like the other species, feeds chiefly on floating mollusca, small fishes, Crustacea, 
which they pick up among the floating seaweeds, and greasy substances which they occasionally find around 
fishing-boats or ships out at sea. When seized in the hand, it ejects an oily fluid through the tubular nostrils, 
and sometimes disgorges a quantity of food. I could not prevail on any of those I caught to take food of 
any kind.” 
In the late Dr. Henry Bryant’s “ Remarks on some of the Birds that breed in the Gulf of St. LavATence,” 
published in the eighth volume of the ‘ Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History,’ it is stated 
that “ these birds Avere frequently seen, but do not breed in numbers or in many places on the north shore. 
1 found them but at two places, on Gull Island, at Romaine, and on a small island betvA'een Mecattina and 
Bras D’Or. As the opposite side of Newfoundland is loAver, and the islands less rocky, it probably breeds 
there. On the Atlantic shore it is found breeding everywhere that a suitable island exists, from Mount 
Desert, in Maine, to the Straits of Belle Isle. At Romaine the eggs were just being laid on the 26th of June.” 
The sexes differ so little, either in size or colouring, that by dissection alone can they he discriminated. 
The forked tail and short tarsi are the characters by Avhich Leach’s Storm-Petrel may be distinguished 
from the common species : these deviations in structure doubtless have an Influence over its actions and 
economy ; hut hoAv far they modify them can only become knoAvn Avhen vA^e have acquired a more intimate 
acquaintance with the bird and its habits in all their phases. 
The Plate represents a male and a female, of the size of life. 
