PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
95 
mentions the P. cinereus to be similar in colour to P. gigantea, being of a dirty 
black. He saw hundreds of thousands of them behind the Island of Chiloe, flying 
for several hours in one direction ; and when part of the flock settled on the water 
the surface was blackened. They are frequent in the Antartic regions, and 
numerous on the great banks of Newfoundland, attendant on the fishing vessels. 
The are equally numerous with the Pulmar Petrel (Procellaria glacialis), and 
recorded in the birds of Greenland by Captain Sabine, now Colonel Sabine, R.A. 
The whale-fishers of the Arctic Seas term them, with the Fulmar Petrel, Malle¬ 
mucks, and, when a series of visiting is carried on by the captains of the whale 
ships when together, it is termed Mallemauking. 
The manner in which the Irish specimens were described as captured on hooks 
when hake-fishing, puzzles me, as hake-fishing is carried on with hand-lines, at a 
depth of 20 to 30 fathoms, and these birds, with long acuminate wings, are by no 
means adapted as divers ; so I wrote to my friend, Mr. Chute, to obtain the informa¬ 
tion of their capture from our fishermen. These shearwaters arrived in Dingle 
Bay about the end of September last (1854), and left early in November. They 
appeared in thousands in mild, foggy weather, and during that time were exceed¬ 
ingly bold, approaching near to the canoes engaged in hake-fishing, and seizing on 
all refuse thrown to them. They were then easily captured with a baited hook, 
the line and the bait always floating, and any number could have been taken by the 
canoe-men in that manner. Their appearance always indicates a successful fishing 
season, particularly of hake. They seemed in pursuit of sprats ; and, except some 
odd birds, they had not appeared in such numbers for seven years before. It was 
then in the month of February, and at that time the glasson, or black pollock, 
fishing was most successful; and the fishermen recollected a man to have caught, in 
one day, nine score of pollock, and to have killed with a rod three score of the 
shearwaters. Had I been aware of these facts last year I could have obtained any 
number of the birds. The men who had been in American vessels had noticed 
these birds all across the Atlantic. Like all the petrels, they are weak on the legs, 
but untiring on the wing, treading the surface of the billows; hence the French 
name, Petit Pierre. Like the gannet, however, when settled on the water, they 
are unable to rise in flight, or do so with great difficulty, in calm weather. They 
have not as yet been traced to breed on the Irish coast. 
To note the peculiar flight of marine birds is a study of interest to the orni¬ 
thologist. The Greater Shearwater, from its long and pointed wings, speeds rapidly 
and steadily, skimming the surface of the billows, while the storm petrel, swallow - 
like, darts into the hollow, and over the crest of the wave. 
“ From the base of the wave to the billow’s crown, 
Amidst the flashing and feathery foam, 
The storm petrel finds a home; 
And only seeking her rocky lair 
To warn her young, and teach them to spring 
At once o’er the waves on their stormy wing.” 
Captain Lyon, when in H.M.S. Griper , off Hatton’s Headland, in Hudson’s 
Straits, and running in rather a heavy sea, saw large flocks of rotages, or rotche, 
the little auk (Alca alle), fly directly against the steep sides of a wave and bury them¬ 
selves headlong in a moment, a most singular mode of diving, which their short 
wings assisted. 
I now turn to another point of interest, the description of a beautiful little gull, 
which has been entrusted to me by Mrs. Baker, of Grafton-street, and I only wish 
that she had placed it in abler hands, as I cannot at present, without the opportu¬ 
nity of comparison with an authenticated specimen, satisfy myself on several points 
relative to its distinctive characters. I may here be permitted to remark, and I do 
so with much pleasure, on the intelligence, industry, and acuteness of observation 
which Mrs. Baker possesses in the avocation she is engaged in. Her prompt atten¬ 
tion to the wishes of those who place any objects of natural history in her hands for 
preservation, and the amount of intelligence displayed in carrying out such objects, 
I cannot speak too highly of. The beautifully-preserved specimens of shearwater, 
this evening exhibited, prove to some extent the success of her manipulation. The 
specimen of the beautiful little gull before the meeting has been submitted to me as 
