728 STORM-PETREL. 



and the Canaries, and has been traced down the coast of Africa as 

 far as Cape Town during our winter months. Returning north- 

 ward, we find it nesting plentifully in the Fteroes, and it occurs, 

 though it probably does not breed, on the coast of Norway, up to 

 lat. 69° ; it also visits Iceland, Southern Greenland, the Bay of 

 Fundy and Newfoundland, but is not known to nest along the 

 American sea-board. 



As a rule the Storm-Petrel does not begin to lay until the second 

 half of June, though Mr. Turle found eggs on the Blaskets in the 

 last week of May ; on the other hand a young bird has been found 

 in the nest as late as October i8th, and in the Faeroes up to November. 

 A slight bed of grass-stems is sometimes made at the end of a 

 burrow in turfy soil, or else beneath stones, or in crevices of 

 rocks ; but the single white egg — often faintly spotted with rusty 

 dots — is also laid on the bare soil: measurements i"i5 in. by 

 •85 in. Incubation lasts about 35 days. A strong odour of 

 musk pervades the burrow and its contents ; and the sitting bird 

 utters a note which is syllabled by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and 

 Buckley as ti-tee-tick, repeated several times in succession. The 

 food consists of crustaceans, molluscs, small fish, and fatty matter of 

 any kind ; the last being frequently obtained by following in the 

 wake of vessels. In fast steamers it is almost impossible to capture 

 this and similar species, but when a sailing ship is going slowly 

 through the water there is no difficulty in entangling them by trailing 

 long threads — slightly weighted at the end — from the taffrail ; sailors, 

 however, consider this proceeding unlucky, although they do not 

 necessarily connect the appearance of these birds with foul weather, 

 as has been asserted. In captivity the Storm-Petrel has been kept 

 alive on oil for three weeks. This and some other members of the 

 family are known by sea-faring folk as Mother Carey's Chickens 

 (perhaps a corruption oi Mater earn); while their habit of paddling 

 along the waves is supposed to have been the origin of the word 

 Petrel, after the Apostle Peter, who essayed to walk upon the water. 



The adult has the upper parts sooty-black, but the tail-coverts are 

 white at their bases, while the edges of the wing-coverts are slightly 

 edged with white ; under surface sooty-black, sides of vent white ; 

 bill, legs and feet black. Length 6"5 in ; wing 47 in. In this 

 species, as is the case with all the Petrels, the sexes are alike in 

 plumage. The young bird is rather browner than the adult, and 

 shows little or no white on the wing-coverts or vent. Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney has an albino example. 



