Collared Petrel
Pterodroma brevipes (Peale, 1848)
Artwork © By John Gerrard Keulemans - Ibis 1891, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16264876
STATUS
Pacific Ocean. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
In a review of all seabirds by W. R. P. Bourne (Ibis 109: 141-167) the BOU (1971) under 'Introduction' p. xiv, adopted his recommendations and this record was not admitted. However, it somehow stayed on the British list until 1971 when it was struck off (Ibis 113: 145).
Formerly known as Gould's Petrel.
NOT PROVEN
0). 1889 Ceredigion Between Aberystwyth and Borth, shot, late November or early December.
(J. E. Harting, Zoologist 1890: 454-455; Eds., Ibis 33: 152; O. Salvin, Ibis 1891: 411-414; Eds., Ibis 1891: 477; Witherby et al., 1940-52; W. R. P. Bourne, Birding World 5: 385).
[W. R. P. Bourne, Ibis 109: 155; BOURC (1971), Ibis 113: 145].
History J. E. Harting (1890) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. XIV. pp. 454-455, says: 'In the month of December a rare Petrel from the South Pacific was shot off the coast, in Cardigan Bay, between Aberystwyth and Aberaeron, and was taken by the fisher man who shot it to the clergyman of the parish. Seeing that it was an uncommon bird, and being unable to name it, he suggested that it should be offered to the local taxidermist for preservation. The latter accordingly mounted it, and it has recently been purchased by Mr. J. W. Willis Bund, who brought it to me for identification. Through the kind assistance of Mr. Osbert Salvin, who has made a special study of the Petrels, it has been determined to be, without a doubt, a specimen of Oestrelata torquata, whose true home is in the South Pacific Ocean....The bird now before me is rather dark on the under-side; but this appears to be a variable character, as specimens in the British Museum vary from pure white on the under surface to nearly the colour of the present example....Petrels seldom live more than a few days if captured alive, and it is therefore unreasonable to suppose that this bird could have been brought into British waters by human agency, and then contrived to make its escape. On Mr. Willis Bund's behalf I had the pleasure of exhibiting it at a meeting of the Linnean Society on November 6th, when needless to say, it caused considerable wonderment amongst the ornithologists who were present....Suffice it to say that the bird is about the size of Larus minutus, of a smoke-grey colour above and below, with a white face and throat, and an irregular white collar which suggested to its original describer the specific name torquata.'
In an Editorial (1891) in The Ibis, Vol. XXXIII. p. 152, they say: 'The occurrence on the Welsh coast, in Cardigan Bay, of a rare Petrel, Oestrelata torquata, Macg., is recorded in The Zoologist for December last (p. 454). The species was originally discovered by John Macgillivray in the island of Anciteum, New Hebrides, but has also occurred in the Fijis (cf. Salvin, Ibis, 1888, p. 360).'
Osbert Salvin (1891) in The Ibis, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 411-414, says: 'In the Zoologist for December last (1890, p. 454), Mr. Harting gave a short account of a Petrel a specimen which had been submitted to him for identification by Mr. J. W. Willis Bund. The same specimen has since been sent to me by our Editor, with a request that I would write a few notes on it and on the species to which it belongs, to accompany the figure of it that it has been thought desirable to place before the readers of The Ibis. Regarding the capture of the specimen, Mr. Willis Bund sends the following account: - "The Petrel was killed between Borth and Aberystwyth either at the very end of November or the beginning of December 1889. It was first seen flying slowly, and when it sat on the water was fired at and missed; it did not fly far, and was shot at again and killed. It was first shown to the vicar of the parish of Llanfihangel Geneur Glyn (the Rev. J. M. Griffiths), who advised the man who shot it to take it to the Aberystwyth bird-stuffer Hutchins, as he did not know what it was. Hutchins bought it from the man, and showed it to me in, I think, February 1890, as a Sooty Shearwater. I said that it was not that bird, but that I could not say what it was. I did not buy it at the time, but at last, when at Aberystwyth subsequently, I purchased it."
The bird in question belongs, no doubt, to the species described in 1860 as Procellaria torquata by John MacGillivray, the well-known traveller and collector in many of the islands of the South Pacific Ocean....The Aberystwyth bird, as the Plate shows, is a dark individual, with the whole under plumage grey, with the exception of the throat. The outer four primaries are old, somewhat worn feathers; the rest are new quills, so that the bird was moulting when shot. This fact adds to our surprise that it should have strayed so far from its native haunts.'
The Editors (1891) in The Ibis, Vol. XXXIII. p. 477, say: 'Since Mr. Salvin's article (above, p. 411) was printed off, the Editor has received a letter from Col. Frank T. Fielden, of Borth, in which it is stated that the specimen of the Collared Petrel above described was killed by one J. Jones on Dec. 2nd, 1889. Jones said that the bird flew just like a Swallow, turning very quickly and circling round. It passed twice round another man who was with Jones, and who fired at it, both times without effect, owing to its irregular flight. It then made a swoop like a Hawk round Jones, when he shot at it and killed it.'
Admitted nationally (Witherby, Jourdain, Ticehurst & Tucker 1940-52).
W. R. P. Bourne (1967) in The Ibis, Vol. CIX, pp. 141-167, says: 'In view of the subsequent record from Wales, it is notable that Layard began a second paper in 1876 "there are several collectors of birds now in Fiji, who are transmitting specimens of birds to Europe and Australia", and also that there were a number of missionaries in the area who are known to have sent home birds as well as various other curios.
A considerable number of specimens of P. l. brevipes reached several different museums in the period 1850-1888 by devious routes, including those at London, Cambridge, Paris and Leiden, and it must have become quite a familiar species, and almost a drug on the market. The Welsh bird was apparently destroyed in London by the bombing during the second world war (Bannerman 1959), but Salvin's original account and excellent figure and the subsequent information collected by Witherby, Jourdain, Ticehurst & Tucker (1940) suggest that its identity is not in doubt. Its origin seems more doubtful; it is said to have been shot by an unnamed longshore shooter, who showed it to the vicar, who advised him to take it to the Aberystwyth bird-stuffer, who eventually sold it to Mr. Willis Bund, Q.C., something over two months later as a Sooty Shearwater Puffinus griseus, and nobody enquired any further than this.'
