STORMY PETREL. 49 



like frogs during the whole night. In the day they are silent, and wan- 

 der widely over the ocean. This easily accounts for the vast dis- 

 tance they are sometimes seen from land, even in the breeding season. 

 The rapidity of their flight is at least equal to the fleetness of our Swal- 

 lows. Calculating this at the rate of one mile per minute, twelve hours 

 would be sufficient to waft them a distance of seven hundred and twenty 

 miles ; but it is probable that the far greater part confine themselves 

 much nearer land during that interesting period. 



In the month of July, while on a voyage from New Orleans to New 

 York, I saw few or none of these birds in the Gulf of Mexico, although 

 our ship was detained there by calms for twenty days, and carried by 

 currents as far south as Cape Antonio, the westernmost extremity of 

 Cuba. On entering the gulf stream, and passing along the coasts of 

 Florida and the Carolinas, these birds made their appearance in great 

 numbers, and in all weathers ; contributing much, by their sprightly 

 evolutions of wing, to enliven the scene ; and afibrding me every day 

 several hours of amusement. It is indeed an interesting sight to ob- 

 serve these little birds in a gale, coursing over the waves, down the 

 declivities, up the ascents of the foaming surf, that threatens to burst 

 over their heads ; sweeping along the hollow troughs of the sea, as in a 

 sheltered valley, and again mounting with the rising billow, and, just 

 above its surface, occasionally dropping their feet, which, striking the 

 water, throw them up again with additional force ; sometimes leaping, 

 with both legs parallel, on the surface of the roughest waves for several 

 yards at a time. Meanwhile they continue coursing from side to side 

 of the ship's wake, making excursions far and wide, to the right and to 

 the left, now a great way ahead, and now shooting astern for several 

 hundred yards, returning again to the ship as if she wore all the while 

 stationary, though perhaps running at the rate of ten knots an hour ! 

 But the most singular peculiarity of this bird is its faculty of standing, 

 and even running, on the surface of the water, which it performs with 

 apparent facility. When any greasy matter is thrown overboard, these 

 birds instantly collect around it, and facing to windward, with their long 

 wings expanded, and their webbed feet patting the water; the lightness 

 of their bodies, and the action of the wind on their wings, enable them 

 to do this with ease. In calm weather they perform the same manrcuvre, 

 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 the Avhole genus have obtained the name Petrel, 

 from the apostle Peter, who, as Scripture informs us, also walked on the 

 water. 



As these birds often come up immediately under the stern, one can 



* Tome xxiii., p. 299. 

 Vol. III.— 4 



