PROCELLARIIDM. 21 



lamps. A wick of cotton or other material is drawn through the body, which when lighted 

 continues to burn till the oil in the body is consumed. In these same islands they are 

 often caught (and afterwards released) for the sake of the valuable oil, which, like all the 

 Petrels, they vomit on being handled. 



The Stormy Petrel is noted as being the latest layer all round our shores. It makes 

 a nest of cUhris in any hole on the ground, where it deposits one white oval egg, 

 about an inch long. 



The Eev. J. G. Wood says: — "Who would think, on inspecting a specimen of the 

 well-known Stormy Petrel, that it was able to dig into the ground, and form the burrow 

 in which it makes its nest ? Such, however, is the case ; and the pretty little traverser 

 of the ocean shows itself to be as accomplished in excavating the ground as it is in flitting 

 over the waves, with its curious mixture of flight and running. If the Stormy Petrel can 

 find a burrow already dug it will make use of it, and accordingly is fond of haunting rocky 

 coasts, and of depositing its eggs in some suitable clefts. It also will settle in a deserted 

 rabbit-burrow, if it can find one sufficiently near the sea ; and is found breeding in many 

 places which would equally suit the Puffin. Failing, however, all natural or ready-made 

 cavities, the Stormy Petrel is obliged to excavate a tunnel for itself, and even on sandy 

 ground is able to make its own domicile. Off Cape Sable, in Nova Scotia, there are 

 many low-lying islands, the upper parts of which are of a sandy nature, and the lower 

 composed chiefly of mud. Not a hope is there in such existing localities of already existing 

 cavities, and yet to those islands the Petrels resort by thousands, for the purpose of 

 breeding. The birds set resolutely to work, and delve little burrows into the sandy 

 soil, seldom digging deeper than a foot, and in fact only making the cavity sufficiently 

 large to conceal themselves and their treasure. Each bird lays a single egg, which is 

 white, and of small dimensions. The young are funny-looking objects, and resemble puffs 

 of white down rather than nestlings. The parent attends to its young with great assiduity, 

 feeding it with the oleaginous fluid which is secreted in such quantities by the digestive 

 organs of this bird." 



Wilson's Storm Petrel (Ocmnites ua'aiticus). — This is the commonest of the ocean 

 "Mother Careys," and is met with in equal numbers on both sides of the Equator. In 

 the voyage to Australia we should take them with us from the Land's End to the Tropics, 

 and again from the south side of the Tropics all the way to Australia. Gould says it is 

 the only Petrel found on both sides of the line. In size and aj)pearance it is much like 

 the Stormy Petrel, but is slightly larger and leggier. Dr. Coppinger, in the ' Cruise of 



