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CHAPTER II. 

 THE SMALL PETRELS. 



" She swept the seas; and as she skimmed along, 

 Her flying feet imhathed on hillows hung." 



Dryden. 



ND SO with our tiny little, well-known ocean wanderer, tlie Stormy Petrel 

 {Fwccllaria pdugicu) ; and hence, as referring to the power and habit of 

 apparently walking on the surface of the water, the name Petrel, which is 

 common to the whole family, and derived from the Apostle Peter, who walked on the 

 water. Some years ago Gould and others named the birds described in this Chapter 

 Thalassidroiiia (fla^a^sa and ?^o/*o;)) ^s descriptive of birds "running" in the "sea." But of 

 late this has been abandoned; and I have now only coupled them together, as being 

 to the sailor simply " Mother Carey's Chickens," a name said to have been bestowed 

 upon them by Captain Carteret's sailors, but for what reason does not appear to be 

 known. I have heard that it means the " Mother carries her Chickens," from the fact 

 of her being so continually on the wing ; but this we must all allow is rather far-fetched. 

 Indeed the name seems wrapped in mystery. 



The Stormy Petrel is the smallest web-footed bird known. Gould says, " Assuming 

 that the Great Albatross usually weighs about fifteen pounds, and the Storm Petrel an 

 ounce, the former is 240 times as heavy as the latter." The meaning of lU'Uujka is " of 

 or belonging to the sea," and Proccllaria (of which this bird is now the recognised type), 

 from procella, "a storm"; both of which terms are truly applicable to this little wanderer, 

 who is to be met with in nearly every sea in the Northern Hemisphere, and equally at 

 home in any weather. He is thus described by Yarrell : — "The biH is black; the irides 

 dark brown ; head, neck, back, wings, and tail sooty-black ; outer edges of tertials white ; 

 upper tail-coverts white; chin, throat, breast, belly, and under tail-coverts sooty-black; 

 legs, toes, and membranes black. The whole length of the bird not quite six inches ; 

 the wing, from the bend, four inches and five-eighths. The young bird, till twelve 



