GIANT PETREL. 329 



Plumage of the sexes alike ; and the young differing but little 

 from the adult. They moult twice a year without changing their 

 colors ; in which white is prevalent. 



The true Petrels are large birds living generally far out at sea, or 

 on desolate islands, amidst rocks and ice-bergs in the coldest regions 

 of the Arctic and Antarctic circles. They venture farther on the 

 ocean than any other birds, regardless of the tempest they seem only 

 aroused into greater activity at its approach. They fly, rest, and 

 walk upon the waves; steadily impelled by the blast, their wide 

 spread wings, like the sails of a ship seem scarcely to require any 

 motion. Their food is fish, and the flesh of dead cetaceous, or other 

 marine animals, mollusca, and sometimes vegetables. They asso- 

 ciate in great numbers to breed in the clefts of rocks, or in holes 

 burrowed in the earth, where they hide themselves during the period 

 of incubation, and never come to land at any other time. They lay 

 only one large egg ; and feed their young by bringing up into the bill 

 their half digested and oily food. In defence of their offspring they 

 have a singular faculty of spurting oil upon their antagonists. Their 

 voice is guttural and stridulous, and is often heard resounding from 

 the depths of their burrows. The species are few and found in all 

 latitudes; only one in the northern hemisphere. They are allied to 

 the larger Gulls. 



GIANT PETREL. 



(Procellaria gigantea, Gmel. Lath. Synops. vi. p. 396. Quebranta- 

 ^2^65505, (Bone-breaker) Bora. Voy. p. 63. Cook's Voyage, ii. p. 

 205. Forster's Voy. p. 516. Buffon, ix. p. 519. Giant Petrel, 

 Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 249. No. 461.) 



Sp. Charact. — Brownish, spotted with white ; below white ; back, 

 wings, and tail brown ; bill and legs yellow. 



These gigantic birds, ludicrously called by the sailors 

 Mother Carey'' s Geese, inhabit the two remote extremities of 

 the American continent, being found in Staaten Land, Ter- 

 ra del Fuego, the Isle of Desolation, and other places in high 

 south latitudes; as well as in 41° 10" north, in March, 

 28* 



