242 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



Procellaira (Fdlmarus) glacialis Linn. Fulmar Petrel. 



Proeellaria glacialis, Aud., Birds Amer. vii. 204 ; pi. 455. Lawrence, Gen. Rep. 

 825. 

 On the 19th of August, while at sea off Belle-Isle, many Fulmars were seen, 

 mostly resting on the water in companies of about a dozen. They generally 

 remained quiet until we approached within sixty or seventy yards, when they 

 would all take flight. In rising from the water the wings are lifted high over 

 the back, the feet drawn under the belly, and with one vigorous spring and a 

 flap at the same instant, the bird launches itself into the air. Its flight is 

 extremely firm, vigorous and protracted, performed with slow measured beats. 

 One individual was overtaken by our vessel, so loaded with food as to be un- 

 able to fly; it passed close by the side swimming as fast as possible, near 

 enough to enable me to clearly discern the peculiar character of the nostrils 

 which distinguishes this family of birds. 



Thalassidroma (Oceanites) Wilsoni Bon. Wilson's Stormy Petrel. ' : Mother 



Carey's Chickens." 



Thalassidroma Wilsoni, Aud., Birds Amer. vii. 223 ; pi. 460. Lawrence, Gen. 

 Rep. 831. 

 Many of these little oceanic wanderers, and probably also the Thai. Leachii, 

 and pelagica, were seen every day during our voyage, until we entered the Gulf 

 of St, Lawrence. After that few were observed, and none at all seen off the 

 coast of Labrador. They probably breed along the coast of Nova Scotia. They 

 are very familiar unsuspicious little birds, fluttering hither and thither close 

 around a vessel to pick up the bits of floating garbage which forms their favor- 

 ite food, and never showing the slightest fear. When about to pick up any 

 floating substance, they raise the wings high over the back, flapping them 

 lightly, and stretch the feet downwards to their fullest extent; the moment 

 they touch the water, the morsel is secured, and the bird is off again in an in- 

 stant. This attitude is represented to the life in Audubon's beautiful plate of 

 the Least Petrel. Their flight is light, graceful and buoyant in the extreme, 

 and their power of remaining long at a time on the wing is unsurpassed. 

 Three or four are generally seen at a time, though when pressed by hunger 

 they sometimes collect in great numbers about a vessel, eagerly searching for 

 food. On one occasion, about dusk in the evening, we came upon a company 

 of about thirty of them, collected together in a compact flock, sporting high in 

 the air with most graceful movements, like so many swallows over a pond. 

 What had attracted them I could not ascertain. These birds may be caught by 

 means of a hook baited with a morsel of pork; but such is the antipathy of 

 sailors to destroying thtro, that they are seldom molested. I am informed by 

 my friend, Dr. H. Bryant, of Boston, that he has caught them by allowing a 

 long filament of silk to float in the air behind a sailing vessel, with which the 

 wings of the birds become entangled as they flutter against it. All three spe- 

 cies of Petrels are universally known as " Mother Carey's Chickens." 



Pcffincs (Ardenna) major (Faber) Bon. Greater Shearwater. " Hagden." 



Puffinus cinereus, Aud., Birds Amer. vii. 212, pi. 456. 

 Pujfinus (Ardema) major, Lawrence, Gen. Rep. 833. 



Many Shearwaters were seen at different times during the voyage, generally 

 singly, and always at a distance from land. They appeared to be shy and un- 

 familiar birds, none approaching near enough to enable me positively to deter- 

 mine the species, whether P. major or anglorum, though from their size I should 

 suppose the former. On the 19th of August many were seen resting on the 

 water in companies, in the manner of the Fulmars, Proeellaria glacialis, to which 

 they are nearly allied, both in form and general manners. Both species are 

 known to sailors and fishermen as " Hagdens." 



[Aug. 



