PROCELLARIIDAE—SHEARWATER.
271
Leach's Fork-tailed Petrel: Procellaria leucorrhoa.
A rare straggler to our coast during stormy weather, after which
it is sometimes blown far inland. It breeds on St. Kilda and perhaps
elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
One was taken alive on the Essex coast in Nov., 1823, and brought into the
London market, where it was purchased by Mr. Yarrell, but it died the same day
(Zoological Journal, ii. 25 and iii. 495). Hoy records one (29. Nov. 9, 1867)
picked up in an exhausted state near Coggeshall in the winter of 1827-28.
Yarrell mentions (14. iii. 521) the occurrence of "one near Saffron Walden"
previous to 1843. Henry Doubleday says (10) :—" On one stormy day [about
Jan. 20th, 1837] a very fine specimen of Thalassidroma leachii was picked up by a
boy in our forest and brought to me." He afterwards mentions (10) another
specimen, brought to him about the middle of Nov., 1840, having been "found
dead in a field [near Epping] after a storm," At his sale in 1871, these two speci-
mens (one of which Mr. Hope now has) sold for 21s. Mr. Harting (Birds of
Middlesex, p. 271), records one shot near the Steam Mill, opposite Bow Creek, in
March, 1864, Dr. Bree records (34. 1060 and 29.Apr. 14. 1874) that during the first
week of Dec, 1867, which was exceedingly rough and stormy, a boy was cleaning
an engine at the Colchester Railway Station about five o'clock in the morning, when
a bird of this species flew against his lantern with great force and was stunned.
Mr. Hope says it is sometimes seen in winter time in Harwich Harbour and up
the Orwell.
Manx Shearwater : Puffinus anglorum.
An uncommon winter visitor to our coast, and occasionally
picked up inland especially after storms. It breeds on the west
coasts of England and
Scotland.
Edward Doubleday, in 1835,
says (15) that a "Shearwater"
[species not stated, but probably
the above] had been " picked
up dead in a field near the
town," having no doubt been
driven inland by severe weather.
Henry Doubleday says (34.
526) that another was picked up
dead in a garden at Epping on
Sept. 21st, 1866. One was
killed by flying against the
telegraph wires near Colchester,
in Sept., 1876 (29.Sept. 23), and
another was found in an ex-
hausted state at Bishop Stortford early in Sept., 1883.
Mr. Travis records that (44. i. lxii.) on or about Sept. 6th, 1878, after a very
rough night, a Dusky Shearwater, Puffinus obscurus, was found in the early morn-
ing by the roadside at Sampford by a postman. It seemed very fatigued, but
lived two days in Mr. Travis's possession, during which time it ate a few slugs and
sometimes used its hooked bill to assist it in climbing about its cage. He informs