T 



I'ERTEL. 



619 



therefore by a curious proc.- is taken for its cause. A sailor once told me 



very frankly, after I had } ..mient with him, that "they mostly takes things 



wrong side forrards," and it : the Stormy Petrel, the pilot-fish, and many other 

 creatures. 



A VERY much . a the FULMAR PETREL. 



This Petrel . i tul in the island of St. Kilda, and an excellent account of the 



bird and its impo* .lie inhabitants has been given by Mr. McGillivray, who visited 



?&;:, $;??. 



1^ : M% ; 





STORMY PETREL. T/ialassidroma pelagica. 



the island in 1860. "This bird exists here in almost incredible numbers. ... It forms 

 one of the principal means of support to the inhabitants, who daily risk their lives in its 

 pursuit. The Fulmar breeds on the face of the highest precipices, and only on such as are 

 furnished with small, grassy shelves, every spot on which, above a few inches in extent, 

 is occupied with one or more of its nests. The nest is formed of herbage, seldom bulky, 

 generally a mere shallow excavation in the turf and the withered tufts of the sea-pink, in 

 which the bird deposits a single egg of a pure white color when clean, which is seldom the 

 case." 



Leach's, Bulwer's, Black-capped, Least Petrel, Wilson's, Black Petrel, Ashy, Fork-tailed, 

 Hornby's, and White-bellied Petrel are all North American birds some of them confined 

 to the California coast and northward on the Pacific. 



