THE PETREL. 23 
men, that they are in some way or other connected 
with the prince of the power of the air. In every 
country where they are known, their names have 
borne some affinity to this belief. They have been 
called witches,* stormy petrels, the Devil’s birds, 
and Mother Cary’s chickens,} probably from some 
celebrated ideal hag of that name; and their un- 
expected and numerous appearance has frequently 
thrown a momentary damp over the mind of the 
hardiest seaman. It is the business of the natural- 
ist and the glory of philosophy to examine into the 
reality of these things; to dissipate the clouds of 
error and superstition, wherever they darken and 
bewilder the human understanding, and to illustrate 
nature with the radiance of truth.” 
When we inquire, accordingly, into the unvarnish- 
ed history of this ominous bird, we find that it is by 
no means peculiar in presaging storms, for many 
others of very different families are evidently en- 
dowed with an equally nice perception of a change 
in the atmosphere. Hence it is that, before rain, 
swallows are seen more eagerly hawking for flies, 
and ducks carefully trimming their feathers, and 
tossing up water over their backs, to try whether it 
will run off again without wetting them. But it 
would be as absurd: to accuse the swallows and 
ducks on that account of being the cause of rain, as 
to impute a tempest to the spiteful malice of the 
poor petrels. Seamen ought rather to be thankful 
to them for the warning which their delicate feelings 
of aerial change enable them to give of an approach- 
ing hurricane. 
“As well,” says Wilson, “ might they curse the 
midnight lighthouse that, starlike, guides them on 
* Pennant, Arttic Zool., p. 464. 
t+ “This name seems to have been originally given them by 
Captain Carteret’s sailors, who met with these birds on the coast 
of Chili. See Hawkesworth’s Voyages, i., 203.” 
$ American Omithology, vii., 95. 
