150 
STOBMY PETBEL. 
bill into the water in search of, or to pick up food, hovering 
for the moment with upraised wings. They are able to swim, 
but seldom alight for the purpose. 
They feed on Crustacea and mollusea generally, small fishes, 
and eatable things of any kind that come in their way. They 
often keep company with ships lor many days, possibly for 
the sake of some little shelter afforded, hut more probably 
to secure stray morsels, either thrown over as waste or 
purposely cast to them by the sailors. 
When engaged with their nests they utter a very peculiar 
purring or buzzing sound, broken every now and then by a 
‘click;’ also towards evening a frequent shrill whistling noise. 
Meyer likens the note to the word ‘kekereck-ee.’ The voices 
of these birds may he heard, especially towards evening, under 
the stones, at a depth of three or four feet or more, where 
they breed on the beach, ‘distinctly singing a sort of warbling 
chatter.’ 
The Stormy Petrel nestles in rabbit-burrows, the crevices 
of rocks, holes in cliffs at a great height above the sea, and 
among loose stones They also excavate small runs for them¬ 
selves where the soil is soft, to a distance of three or four 
feet. The season for laying is late—towards the middle, and 
sometimes not till quite the end of June, or the first week 
in July. The young have been found onlj r recently hatched 
on the 13th. ot October. 
The egg is white, and somewhat of an oval shape. It is 
very frequently surrounded about the base with a ring of faint 
dull-coloured pink or fine rust-coloured spots. 
A few pieces of stalks of plants, dried grass, or sea-pinks, 
with a stray feather or two, are all the nest. The bird sits 
very close, and will allow herself to he taken off' the nest 
sooner than forsake her charge. 
Male; length, not quite six inches; bill, black, the tip 
much compressed; iris, dark brown; head, crown, neck, and 
nape, glossy black; chin, throat, and breast, sooty brownish 
black, the last-named with a white patch on the sides towards 
the tail; back, glossy black. 
The wings expand about one foot one inch. Greater wing 
coverts, sooty black, the tips pale grey, forming a bar across; 
lesser wing coverts, brownish black; tertiaries, sooty black, 
their outer edges and tips greyish white. Tail, sooty black; 
upper tail coverts, white at the base, forming a broad band 
