ioo Wild Birds and their Haunts 



In days long past, happily, the mariner regarded this 

 species of bird as the harbingers of all that is evil. They 

 have been called " witches," " the Devil's birds," and 

 "Mother Gary's chickens," probably from some cele- 

 brated ideal hag of that name ; and their unexpected and 

 numerous appearance in those days threw a momen- 

 tary damp over the mind of the hardiest seaman. 



When we inquire, by diligent research, into the un- 

 varnished history of this ominous bird, we find that it is 

 by no means peculiar in presaging storms, for many others 

 of very different families are evidently endowed with an 

 equally nice perception of a change in the atmosphere. 

 Hence it is that, before rain, swallows are seen more 

 eagerly hawking for flies, and ducks carefully trimming 

 their feathers and tossing water over their backs to try 

 whether it will run off again without wetting them. But 

 it would be as absurd to accuse the swallows and ducks on 

 that account of being the cause of rain as to impute a 

 tempest to the spiteful malice of the poor petrels. Sea- 

 men ought rather to be thankful to them for the warning 

 which their delicate feelings of aerial change enable 

 them to give of an approaching hurricane. 



" As well," says Wilson, " might they curse the mid- 

 night lighthouse that, starlike, guides them on their 

 watery way, or the buoy that warns them of the sunken 

 rocks below, as this harmless wanderer, whose manner 

 informs them of the approach of the storm, and thereby 

 enables them to prepare for it." 



The petrels are nocturnal birds. When, therefore, they 

 are seen flying about and feeding by day, the fact appears 

 to indicate that they have been driven from their usual 

 quarters by a storm ; and hence, perhaps, arose the 

 association of the bird with the tempest. The once 

 popular opinion among sailors that the petrels carry their 

 eggs under their wings in order to hatch them is no less 

 unfounded than the fancy of their causing storms ; it is 

 indeed physically impossible. 



They have been ascertained to breed on rocky shores, in 

 numerous communities like the bank-swallow, making 

 their nests in the holes and cavities of the rocks above the 



