55 4 STORMY PETREL. Class II. 



flung over, which they would (land on with expand- 

 ed winors ; but were never obferved to fettle on, or 

 fwim in the water: it prefages bad weather, and cau- 

 tions the feamen of the approach of a tempeft, by 

 collecting under the ftern of the fhips : it braves 

 the utmoft fury of the ftorm, fometimes fkimming 

 with incredible velocity along the hollows of the 

 waves, fometimes on the fummits : Cluftus makes 

 it the Camilla of the fea. 



Vel mare per medium fluttu fufpenfa tumenti 



Ferret iter, celeres nee tingeret asquore plantas. Virgil. 



She fwept the Teas, and as me fkim'd along, 



Her flying feet unbath'd on billows hung. Dryden. 



Thefe birds are the Cypfelli of Pliny, which he 

 places among the Apodes of Ariftotle -, not becaufe 

 they wanted feet, but were KaxoWa *, or had 

 bad, or ufelefs ones •, an attribute he gives to thefe 

 fpecies, on a fuppofition they were almoft always 

 on the wing. Hardouin, a critick quite unfkilled 

 in natural hiftory, imagines them to be martins, the 

 Cypfelli of Ariftotle f : but a little attention to the 

 text of each of thofe antient naturalilts, is fuffici- 

 ent to evince that they are very different birds; the 

 latter very accurately defcribes the characters of 

 that fpecies of fwallow : while Pliny exprefTes the 

 very manner of life of our Petrel. 



* Jnft. \~. 

 f P. 1067. 



" Nidiflcant 



