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valley, and again mounting witli tlie rising billow, 

 occasionally dropping tlicir feet and striking tlie 

 water, and sometimes leaping with botli legs parallel 

 on the surface of the roughest waves, for several 

 yards at a time. When any greasy matter is thrown 

 overboard from a ship, the Petrels instantly collect 

 around it, facing to windward, with their long wings 

 expanded and their webbed feet patting the water. 

 In calm weather, they perform the same manoeuvre 

 by keeping their wings just so much in action as to 

 prevent their feet from sinking below the surface. 

 According to Buffon, it is from this singular habit 

 that these ocean birds have obtained the name of 

 ^^ Petrel," in allusion to St. Peter, who also walked 

 on the water. 



The t\q)e of this sub-family, — 



The Storm Petrel (Procellaria pelagica), l« the 

 smallest, not only of its race, but of the whole order of 

 web-footed bhds, measuring less than six inches in length. 

 It is of a sooty black colour, with the outer margins of 

 the tertiary quills and the upper tail-covers white ; the 

 bill and feet are black. This bird is met with throughout 

 the European seas. 



The Storm Petrel makes its nest in a burrow, 

 excavated to the depth of about a foot. It lays but a 

 single egg, which is white and of small dimensions. The 

 young resemble puffs of white down. The parent attends 

 to its chick with great assiduity, feeding it with the oily 

 Huid produced in great abundance in its crop. So large, 

 indeed, is the amount of this oil, that m some parts of 

 the world the natives make the Storm Petrel into a lamp, 

 by the simple process of drawing a wick through its body. 

 The oil soon rises into the wick, and burns freely. The 

 Petrel only fe^ds its young by night, remainmg on the 

 wing durmg the day, and flying to vast distances from 

 the land. Owing to this habit, and its custom of taking 

 to the sea during the fiercest storms, it has long been an 

 ol)ject of dread to sailors, who fancy that the Petrels, or 

 "Mother Carey's chickens," call up the storm around 

 them. They also believe that the Petrel never goes on 

 shore nor rests, and that it holds its egg under one wing, 



