334 



BBITISH BIRDS 



Fig. 112 — Stormy Petrel. ^ natural size. 



The names of stormy petrel and Mother Carey's chicken are aa 

 familiar to everyone as that of rook, or partridge, or hedge-sparrow ; 



but the little 

 bird they belong 

 to is known by 

 sight to com- 

 paratively few 

 persons. It is 

 pre - eminently 

 an oceanic spe- 

 cies, that comes 

 to land only to 

 breed; its breed- 

 ing-places are 

 on remote and 

 lonely islands 

 not easy of ac- 

 cess ; and, when 

 breeding, the 

 bird is noctur- 

 nal in habits, 



and it would be possible for anyone to spend many days in the very 

 midst of a colony of petrels and not see them, or suspect that they 

 were there. 



The name of stormy petrel has been altered in several modem 

 ornithological works to that of storm petrel ; and on this subject 

 Seebohm makes a delightfully characteristic observation. * The 

 words stormy petrel,' he writes, ' are doubtless a very ungrammatical 

 combination, as many other familiar English words are ; but that is 

 no reason why they should be altered, although they may have 

 offended the ears of Yarrell and his academical friends.' The 

 rebuke is the more deserved when we remember that these same 

 ' academical friends ' have been quick to ridicule the attempts of 

 certain ornithologists to substitute the name of hedge-accentor for 

 that of hedge-sparrow — the absurdest name of all, but * consecrated,' 

 as they say, by long use, and Shakespeare. The name of ' petrel ' 

 comes about in a very curious way. It is the diminutive of Peter, 

 given to the bird on account of a habit it has, when gliding along 

 just above the surface, of dropping its feet and paddling, producing 

 the idea that it is walking on the water. I am not quite sure that 

 this is a correct derivation ; Peter (the apostle), it will be remem- 



