PROCELLARID.^. 



535 



and batches it while engaged in flight. This bird is 

 essentially a storm-lover, for by the violence of the wind 

 the substances upon which it feeds are bi'ought to the 

 surface, and can be snaj)ped up before they sink again. 

 Throughout the breeding season, the Petrel is indefati- 

 gable in search of food, and will follow ships for con- 

 siderable distances, in hopes of obtaining some of the 

 oflPal that is thrown over by the cook. During the night, 

 it mostly remains with its offspring, and makes a curious 

 grunting noise like the croaking of frogs. The ordinary 

 cry is low, short, and something like the quacking of a 

 young duck. By day, these birds are silent. The burrow 

 in which the young Petrel is hatched is exceedingly 

 odoriferous, the food on which they live having a very 

 rancid and unsavoury smell, so that both the habitation 

 and its inmates are abominably offensive to the nostrils. 

 The young one is at first very helpless, and remains in its 

 excavated home until several weeks old. 



