STORMY PETREL. 
517 
NA TA TORES. 
LARI DAE. 
STORMY PETREL. 
MOTHER CARY’S CHICKEN. 
Thalassidroma PELAGICA. 
PLATE CXLV. FIG. I. 
In an excursion through the Shetland Islands during 
the summer in search of rarities for the “British Oology/' 
I had the very great satisfaction of seeing and taking 
many of these most interesting birds alive. They breed 
in great numbers on many of the islands, principally 
upon Foula, the north of Unst, and upon Papa and Oxna, 
two small islands in the Bay of Scalloway. The last of 
these I visited on the 31st of May, in hopes that I should 
procure their eggs, it being the season during which most 
of the sea-birds begin to lay ; but in this I was disap¬ 
pointed ; the fishermen, who know the Petrels well by 
the name of swallows, assured me that my search would 
be quite useless, that they had not yet “ come up from 
the sea," and so it proved. Sixteen days after this, June 
the 16th, and three following days, I was at Foula, but 
was alike unsuccessful; the birds had arrived at their 
breeding-places, but had not yet begun to lay their eggs. 
Numbers of them were sitting in their holes, and were 
easily caught; one man brought me above a dozen tied 
up in an old stocking, two of which I kept alive in my 
