532 PALMIPEDES. 



FAMILY lY. 



Procellarid^. Tlie Petrels. 



Gkn. Chaeac. — Bill more or lesa lengthened, straight, more or less com- 

 pressed and grooved, as if composed of several pieces, with the tip strong, 

 arched, suddenly hooked and acute, and the nostrils tubular and exposed. 



Tlie birds of tlie Auk family are very scantily 

 furnislied with wings, and some of them are totally 

 incapable of flight, but those to which we have 

 now to advert possess large wings, and fly with 

 great ease and rapidity.* Their body is tolerably 

 short, supported upon moderately long legs, which 

 are placed less backward than in many of the 

 preceding groups, so that these birds walk with 

 more grace than most of their allies. The anterior 

 toes are well developed, and united by large webs, 

 but the posterior toe is rudimentary or entirely 

 wanting. The structure of the bill serves to distin- 

 guish them from the family of the Gulls, which they 

 resemble in general form. The apical portion of 

 both mandibles is distinct, separate from the basal 

 part, and the upper surface of the base of the upper 

 mandible is usually occupied by a pair of tubes, 

 generally united together, at the extremity of which 

 are the openings of the nostrils. The nostrils are 

 always of a tubular form. These birds are strictly 

 oceanic in their habits, passing nearly their whole 

 time in flying over the sea, and even apparently 

 delighting in rough weather. Few of them ever 

 visit the shore except for the purpose of breeding, 

 when they deposit their eggs, and rear their young 

 in holes or upon the ledges of the rocks. Their food 

 consists of fishes and other marine creatures, 

 together with fragments of animal matter that they 

 find floating on the waves. 



This family comprehends the Petrels proper and 

 the Albatrosses. 



* See " Animal Creation," p. 467. 



