STORM-PETREL. 279 



Storm-Petrel. Thalassidroma pelagica (Linn.). 



The sailor is well acquainted with the Storm-Petrel (Plate 

 123) ; he calls it "Mother Carey's Chicken," and by no means 

 always looks upon it Iwith superstitious dread, for the bird 

 follows in the steamer's wake in any weather. During the 

 greater part of the year the ocean is the Petrel's home ; it is a 

 bird of the eastern Atlantic, but how far it normally ranges 

 south is uncertain, for though it is said to have rounded the 

 Cape, there may have been confusion with other petrels. Its 

 British breeding colonies are on islands off the Scottish and 

 Irish coast, and on some in South Wales and the Scillies. 

 There is a general southward movement in autumn, but the 

 bird is scattered far and wide in winter, and only continuous 

 bad weather brings it to land. Strong gales not only drive it 

 ashore, sometimes in such numbers as to be classed as 

 " wrecks," but often carry it far inland, dropping it, storm 

 battered, in towns or other unlikely spots for an oceanic bird, 

 where starvation hastens the end. 



The Storm-Petrel is a small sooty bird with a white patch 

 above and below the base of the tail ; the tail is square, not 

 forked as in its nearest allies. Its wings are long and narrow ; 

 its flight buoyant, swift, and erratic ; as it follows a steamer, a 

 frequent habit, it looks like a long-winged House-Martin, the 

 white back patch helping the resemblance. It swerves and 

 twists, and occasionally lowers its long legs and patters on the 

 surface — from this the sailors coined the name — Little Peter 

 striving to walk on the waves. During this pattering, half- 

 running flight it dips its head for food, sometimes erroneously 

 described as "insects," sometimes as the oily offal thrown 

 overboard, whatever this may mean. It will eat oily matter, 

 skimming it from the surface ; Mr. T. H. Nelson kept a bird for 

 a few days, and fed it on oil floating on water in a saucer ; the 

 bird flew over it like a Swallow and skimmed off the oil. The 



