76 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
Mr. Andrews then said that he had a few remarks to make relative to the paper 
brought forward on a former evening, on the capture of the membranaceous duck, 
in Castlemaine Bay, County Kerry. He had since traced every circumstance fully 
confirmatory of its capture there; he regretted, however, that the trachea or windpipe 
had not been preserved, nor the sternum, which might have afforded additional interest 
to the observations. Apparently, the membranaceous duck would possess great 
power of flight, although its wings were extremely short, as in the Fuligulinae, the 
scaups or pochards, &c., whose powers of swimming and diving are great. Through 
the kindness of Dr. Farran, he had the opportunity of exhibiting and comparing 
fine specimens of the gad wall and of the shoveller duck. These beautiful birds, like 
the membranaceous duck, were remarkable in having the laminae of the mandibles 
largely developed, and which were strongly so in the gadwall—a provision suiting 
them to their peculiar habits of feeding. The membranaceous duck, whose bill was 
extremely soft in its substance, seemed only suited to feed upon the softer mollusca 
and gelatinous marine and freshwater animals ; thus, the finely pectinated laminae 
retain the minute creatures upon which the bird feeds, allowing only the watery 
portions to escape. In the paper before alluded to he had mentioned the capture, 
off the island of Yalentia, of the dusky petrel, Puffinus obscurus, and he was now, 
through the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Blackburne, of Yalentia, enabled to exhibit 
the specimen, which had been beautifully preserved. This bird—the Puffinus 
assimilis of Gould, a native of Norfolk Island and the eastern shores of Australia— 
is the first record of its capture in Europe, never having been known north of the 
Mediterranean. It is, however, plentiful at the Cape of Good Hope, and, probably, 
on the north-west coast of Africa, and its true specific name is the dusky 
petrel, Puffinus obscurus. The Puffinus obscurus is extremely like the Manx 
petrel, Puffinus Anglorum, but is readily distinguishable by its diminutive pro¬ 
portions. At the same time, the dusky petrel is a southern species, while the 
Manx petrel is a northern. Mr. Andrews had also the opportunity of ex¬ 
hibiting a specimen of the Manx shearwater with the egg, taken in one of the 
cliffs, on the Island of Yalentia. These birds were always considered to breed on 
the Skellig Islands, but Mr. Andrews had never known the eggs to be obtained 
there. An egg had been sent to him taken from the smaller Skellig Island, stated 
to be that of the Manx shearwater, but, on comparing it with the egg sent by Mr. 
Blackburne, it was of much smaller size, and not so oval as the egg of the Manx 
shearwater. On examination of the eggs in the British Museum, Mr. Andrews 
found one corresponding with it, marked as the egg of Bulwer’s petrel, Thalassi- 
droma Bulweri. It was gratifying to have so well authenticated, by Mr. Blackburne, 
the egg of the Manx shearwater, as it but little known to the naturalists of this 
country. The eggs of the petrel are large in proportion to the size of the birds, 
and it would be extremely interesting yet to prove that the egg of the petrel that 
had been sent to him was that of T. Bulweri. Having noticed these instances on 
the west coast of such rare birds, discovered within the last year, we may naturally 
expect to meet other species of the petrels on that coast. The petrels on the south¬ 
west coast seemed principally to breed on the smaller Skellig Island, and on the 
islands of Innismacalaun and Innisnabroe—two of the Blasquett Islands. In con¬ 
cluding, Mr. Andrews could not but observe on the extreme interest of the birds 
exhibited this evening; two of the rarest additions to British ornithology that had 
been made for years. The dusky petrel excited great interest, when exhibited by 
Mr. Yarrell, at the Linnaean Society, in June last; and this society was much in¬ 
debted to the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Blackburne, of Yalentia, in now affording 
the opportunity of seeing the specimen, and of that of the Manx shearwater. 
Living in a wild and remote retreat, Mr. and Mrs. Blackburne, with their 
daughter, devoted much of their time to literary pursuits, and the two latter had, 
by their observations, gained and added much interesting information to the 
zoology and botany of that district. 
Mr. Williams said that he had long and great experience in watching the habits 
of water fowl, and he did not consider that the shoveller had any peculiarity in its 
feeding ; he observed it, when swimming, to skim the surface of the water with its 
bill, but it ate potatoes and meal, in common with other of the duck tribe. 
The Chairman remarked that the habits of birds in confinement could not be 
