STORM PETREL. 47 



by Buffon (Hist. nat. xxiv. p. 299), to have obtained for 

 them from English sailors the name of Petrel, after the 

 Apostle Peter, who attempted to walk on the water : the 

 derivation being given as " pierre, pierrot, ou petit-pierre " ! 



Some interesting accounts of the habits of this species in 

 captivity are to be found in ' The Naturalist,' iii. p. 214, 

 and * The Zoologist,' 1881, p. 489, from which it appears 

 that the hooked bill and wings are freely used as means of 

 progression. Mr. Scarth, when in Orkney, caught one on 

 her nest in a small hole, and preserved her alive for three 

 months in a cage, feeding her by smearing her breast with 

 oil, which she sucked from the feathers, drawing each feather 

 singly between her mandibles (Linn. Trans, xiii. p. 617). 



The bill is black ; the irides dark brown ; head, neck, 

 back, wings, and tail sooty-black ; outer edges of wing- 

 coverts greyish-white ; upper tail-coverts white, tipped with 

 black ; chin, throat, breast, belly, vent, and under tail-coverts 

 of a sooty-black, rather lighter than the upper parts ; sides 

 of the vent white ; legs, toes, and membranes black. The 

 whole length of the bird is not quite six inches ; the wing, 

 from the bend, four inches and five-eighths. The young- 

 bird, till twelve months old, is not quite so dark in colour ; 

 edges of wing-coverts rusty- brown ; no white on the margins 

 of the wing-coverts, and less white at each side of the vent. 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has an albino of this species. 



The nestling is covered with a soft, wool-like, greyish- 

 black down. The Rev. S. H. Saxby, who weighed five of 

 these Petrels taken from their burrows, found that their 

 average weight was nearly half an ounce. 



