372 Messrs. A. and E. Newton’s Observations 
Croix, and, as we obtained skins of the true Laughing Gull at 
St. Thomas, we have not much hesitation in referring the former 
to this species*. It generally keeps in small flocks at no great 
distance from the shore. We do not know that it breeds on 
any of the neighbouring islands, but the harbour of St. Thomas 
is seldom without its little foraging party. 
f 63. [?] - (?) Storm-Petrel. Thaiassidroma -(?). 
64. [?] -- (?) Storm-Petrel. Thaiassidroma - (?). 
“On the 14th June, 1858, being between St. Thomas and St. 
Croix, a pair of small Storm-Petrels came under our lee for some 
minutes. On September 28th I saw some two hundred Storm- 
Petrels of a larger size, feeding much after the manner of 
Shearwaters ( Puffinus , Briss.) near the harbour of Christiansted. 
The former of these birds I should imagine to have been Wilson’s 
(Th. wilsoni, Bp.) and the latter Bulwer’s Storm-Petrels ( Th. 
bulweri , Gould); but I am only certain of one thing, which is 
that the examples seen on these two occasions were of two 
different species.”—E. N. 
“ I saw no Storm-Petrels in the West Indian seas f; but on 
* We believe that hitherto the only instance recorded on reliable au¬ 
thority of the occurrence in Europe of Ch. atricilla is that mentioned by 
Colonel Montagu, as quoted above, and this so long ago as the month of 
August 1774. The statements of M. Temminck (Man. d’Orn. ii. p. 779 
et seq.) have been copied by other naturalists, for example, Professor Savi 
(Orn. Tosc. iii. p. 76) and Mr. Yarrell (B. B. iii. p. 442); but Dr. Schlegel 
has shown (Rev. Crit. p. 114 et seq.) that these originated in an error of 
Herr Natterer, who mistook individuals of the Mediterranean Larus 
audouini, Payreaudeau, for those of this species. 
f “ On the occasion mentioned in my note on the Frigate Bird (vide 
supra), mingling with the large flock of Boobies were a great many birds 
evidently Petrels, apparently about the size of our Manx Shearwater 
(Puffinus anglorum, Ray) and similarly coloured, that is to say, dark above 
and white beneath, but having much more the flight of a Fulmar (Pro- 
cellaria glacialis, L.). They were, I suspect, of the species known to the 
French colonists of Guadeloupe as ‘ le Diablotin ,’ mentioned, but not de¬ 
scribed, by M. De Lafresnaye in 1844 (Rev. Zool. vii. p. 168), under the 
name of e Procellaria diabolica, L’Herminier/ being doubtless identical 
with the P. meridionalis described by Mr. G. N, Lawrence in 1847 (Ann.Lyc. 
N. H. New York, iv. p. 475), and most probably with the P. hcesitata of 
Dr. Kuhl(Beitr. zurZool. p. 142). If this be the case, the last-mentioned 
name, having been published in 1820, has the priority, and should be used. 
