422 



PETRELS. 



calm weather they perforin the same manoeuvre by keeping their 

 wings just so much in action as to prevent their feet from sinking 

 below the surface. According to Buffon, it is from this singular 

 habit that these ocean birds have obtained the name of " petrel," 

 in allusion to St. Peter, who also walked on the water. 



The type of this sub-family — 



The Storm Petrel {Proccllaria pelagicd), is the smallest, not only of its 

 race, but of the whole order of web-footcd'birds, measuring less than six inches 

 in length. It is of a sooty black colour, with the outer margins of the tertiary 

 quills anrl the upper tail-coverts white; the bill and feet are black. This bird 

 is met with throughout the European seas. 



\ ^"4 



Fig. 207. -The Storm Petrel {Procellaria pelagica). 



The storm petrel makes its nest in a burrow excavated to the depth of about 

 a foot. It lays but a single egg, which is white and of small dimensions. The 

 young resemble puffs of white down. The parent attends to its chick with 

 great assiduity, feeding it with the oily fluid produced in great abundance in 

 its crop. So large, indeed, is the amount of this oil, that in some parts of the 

 world the natives make the storm petrel into a lamp by the simple process of 

 drawing a wick through its body. The oil soon rises into the wick, and burns 

 freely. The petrel only feeds its young by night, remaining on the wing during 

 the day, and flying to vast distances from the land. Owing to this habit, and 

 its custom of taking to the sea during the fiercest storms, it has long been an 

 object of dread to sailors, Avho fancy that the petrels, or " Mother Carey's 

 chickens," call up the storm around them. They also believe that the petrel 

 never goes on sliore nor rests, and that it holds its egg under one wing, and 

 hatches it while engaged in flight. This bird is essentially a storm-lover, for 

 by the violence of the wind the substances upon which it feeds are brought to 



