44 PROCELLARIID^. 



Petrel has numerous colonies, and there are several in the 

 Orkneys and the Shetlands. Mr. John Macgillivray, who 

 visited the Hebrides in July, 1840, says, " The Stormy 

 Petrel is abundant in St. Kilda. The island of Soa is the 

 principal breeding-place, where, as well as in several spots 

 among the others of the group, it nestles among debris, 

 and in crevices of the rocks. The bird sits very close upon 

 the nest, from which it will allow itself to be taken by the 

 hand, vomiting, on being handled, a quantity of pure oil, 

 which is carefully preserved by the fowlers, and the bird 

 allowed to escape. It is only at sunset and about daybreak 

 that I have observed the Stormy Petrel at sea, except during 

 gloomy weather, save once, while crossing the Minch, being 

 then not far from one of their breeding-places, at Dunvegan 

 Head, in the Isle of Skye." 



Mr. Hewitson thus notices the habits of this species at 

 Foula, Papa, and Oxua : — " On the 31st of May, these 

 birds had not arrived on the breeding-ground, or, to use 

 the phrase of the fishermen, had not yet come up from the 

 sea. Some eggs were deposited as late as the 30th of June. 

 Each female lays but one, which is oval and white, measur- 

 ing one inch one line in length, by ten lines in breadth.* 

 At Oxna, where they breed under the stones which form the 

 beach, I could hear them very distinctly singing in a sort of 

 warbling chatter, a good deal like swallows when fluttering 

 above our chimney-tops, but somewhat harsher. The nests 

 seemed to have been made with care, of small bits of 

 stalks of plants and pieces of hard dry earth. During 

 the day the old birds remain within their holes, and, 

 when most other birds are gone to rest, issue forth in 

 great numbers, spreading themselves far over the surface of 

 the sea ; the fishermen then meet with them very numer- 

 ously, and, though they had not previously seen one, are 



* Average measurements 1 in. by '9 in. There is sometimes a more or less 

 defined zone of rust-coloured spots. Like the Forked-tailed Petrel, these birds 

 frequently have one main burrow from which smaller apertures branch oif ; and 

 they are sometimes found nesting in such close proximity as to give rise to 

 the impression that more than one egg is laid by the same female. The young 

 have been found in the nest so late as the 18th of October. 



