104 REMARKS ON THE ALBATROSS AND PETREL. 



form their flights. When in 59° south latitude, where there 

 is scarcely any night as long as the sun is under the tropic 

 of Capricorn, we have seen the same petrels sailing on the 

 wing several days together without interruption. The petrels 

 do not dive after their food, but if it lies only at a certain 

 depth, they endeavour to seize it by forcing part of their body 

 under water. 



From what has been said it appears, that the mere presence 

 of these birds is not a sure sign of the approach of land. 



With respect to the incubation of these pelagic birds, the 

 French naturalists observe, that the petrels flock in immense 

 numbers to the ' Isles Malouines/ along the shores of which 

 their eggs are deposited in such abundance as to be a source 

 of subsistence to the seamen employed in the seal-fishery. 

 They were also informed that these birds arrange their eggs 

 with much order, and, living as it were in a republic, exer- 

 cise by turns the function of incubation in this kind of tem- 

 porary establishment. 



The little stormy-petrel (Thalassidroma pelagica, Vigors) 

 breeds in the Orkneys. 



Mr. Scarth states *, that in passing over a tract of peat- 

 moss, near the shore, in a small uninhabited island in Orkney, 

 one evening in the month of August last, he was surprised to 

 hear a low purring noise, somewhat resembling the sound of 

 a spinning-wheel in motion 5 and on inquiry, he was informed 

 by one of the boatmen who accompanied him, that it was 

 the noise commonly emitted by the Alimonty (the Orkney 

 name for the stormy petrel,) that frequented the island when 

 hatching. 



On examining a small hole in the ground, he found the bird 

 and its nest, which was very simple, being little more than a 

 few fragments of shells laid on the bare turf. It contained 

 two round pure- white eggs, which were very large in com- 

 parison with the size of the bird. When he seized the bird, 

 she squirted out of her mouth an oily substance of a very 

 rancid smell. He took her home, and having put her into a 

 cage, he offered her various kinds of worms to eat ; but, as 

 far as he could observe, she ate nothing till after the expira- 

 tion of four days, when he observed that she occasionally 

 drew the feathers of her breast singly across, or rather 

 through her bill, and appeared to suck an oily substance from 

 them. This induced him to smear her breast with common 

 train oil ; and observing that she greedily sucked the feathers, 

 he repeated the smearing two or three times in each day for 

 about a week. He then placed a saucer containing oil in the 

 * Linn. Trans, xiii. p. 61/. 



