332 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



the floating ice, they seek out the resorts of the whale, on 

 whose carcase, and that of other cetaceous animals, they 

 often make a gratifying feast, and are well known to the 

 whale fishers who frequent these hyperboreal seas. They 

 attend the ships in all their progress. Emphatically the 

 bird of the tempest, the Petrel rides securely amidst its hor- 

 rors, profiting by the agitation and destruction which it 

 spreads around. Conscious of the object which the mariner 

 has in quest, they follow the vessel, and watch the result. 

 As soon as a whale is moored to the side of the ship, and 

 begins to be cut up, an immense muster takes place, some- 

 times exceeding a thousand of these greedy birds, all sta- 

 tioned in the rear, watching for the morsels which are wafted 

 to leeward. The peculiar chuckling note by which they 

 express their eager expectation, their voracity when seizing 

 on the fat, and the large pieces which they swallow, the 

 envy shown towards those who have obtained the largest of 

 these morsels, and often the violent measures taken to 

 wrest it from them, afford to the sailors curious and amus- 

 ing spectacles. The surface of the sea is sometimes so 

 covered with them, that a stone cannot be thrown without 

 one being struck. When an alarm is given, innumerable 

 wings are instantly in motion, and the birds, striking their 

 feet against the water to aid their flight, cause a loud and 

 thundering plash. 



The Petrel is not uncommon in some of the islands off 

 the north of Scotland. At St. Kilda, one of the Hebrides, 

 it breeds, and supplies the inhabitants with a vast quantity of 

 oil, which is used for culinary as well as medicinal purposes: 

 According to Pennant, "no bird is of such use to the 

 islanders as this ; it supplies oil for their lamps, down for 

 their beds, a delicacy for their tables, a balm for their 

 wounds, and a medicine for their distempers." He adds 

 *' that it is a certain prognostication of the change of winds. 



