Identifier: historyofbritish08morr (find matches)
Title: A history of British birds. By the Rev. F.O. Morris ..
Year: 1862 (1860s)
Authors: Morris, F. O. (Francis Orpen), 1810-1893
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London, Groombridge and Sons
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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ham.Beunnich. Eay. Lestris—A pirate vessel. Buffonii—Of Buffon. This species has been named after M. Buffon, thecelebrated French naturalist. Many of these birds are seen in North America, aboutBaffins Bay, Melville Peninsula, and the North GeorgianIslands. Specimens have been procured in different parts of Franceand Belgium, and they occur also in Norway, Iceland, andSpitzbergen. In Yorkshire an individual of this kind was taken nearKedcar, on the 20th. of July, 1849; another, I believe, nearBridlington Quaj^, and another at Flamborough. One inDevonshire, near Plymouth, as John Gatcombe, Esq. haswritten me word. Another was shot by George DawsonRowley, Esq., at Wintringham, St. Neots, Huntingdonshire,on the 20th. of October, 1848; it was sitting in an arablefield, and was very tame. The remains ot a dead bird,aj^parently its mate, were also found not far off. In Norfolk,a specimen was picked up dead at Hockham, in Sejitember,1847. In Durham, an adult bird was found near Whitburn,
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BTJrFONs SKUA. 123 at the end of October, 1837, and young ones on otherparts of the coast and the banks of the Tyne. In Scotland one of these birds was obtained at BonarBridofe, in Aus^ust, 1841. In Ireland they have likewise occurred, but as rarevisitants; one in 1839, near Dublin.They also are seen in Orkney. This is another very elegantly-shaped species, its wholeform and contour giving evidence of its character as a sortof predatory Sea Swallow, a very Harpy of the deep, butone which, unlike the pests of that name described by Virgil,reverses the order of things as to the dapes, and does notspoil the morsel so as to hinder its being swallowed bythose among w^hom it comes unbidden and unwelcome, butpounces on the spoil all the more eagerly, for that theothers have first made it their own by what would naturallybe thought the most secure mode of appropriation. It flies no doubt in the same free and easy manner asthe other species. So likewise as to the manner of taking its food.This

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