BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 177 



himself much about wind, and still less about the bird that 

 our ancient mariners used to think brought it. 



What a shock for the old salts, who dreaded the killing of 

 a petrel, to hear that under the name " Blasquet chickens " 

 they have been eaten on toast, like snipe, and declared to 

 be "delicious eating." Yet such is the fact; and seeing 

 that the bird does not feed on fish, there is no reason why 

 it should not, unlike most sea-fowl, be palatable. 



For the food of petrels, strange to say, is oil. At any rate, 

 nothing else is found in their stomachs, but where the oil 

 comes from — whether they collect it from the surface of the 

 sea, or whether by some chemical process of their own they 

 convert other material into oil— no one can say with 

 certainty. 



Oddly enough, too, the little stormy-petrel in its breed- 

 ing haunts does not fly by day, but feeds its young at 

 night ; and here, again, reason is puzzled for an explanation. 

 They lay their eggs in crevices of the rocks, in heaps of 

 dibris, or old rabbit-holes ; but these are only to be found 

 by searching, as there are no birds on the wing while the 

 sun is shining, and they do not, like all others, betray their 

 nurseries by going to and fro in the daylight with food. 

 What stranore contrasts ! For more than nine months of 

 the year the petrel is "the playmate of the storm " — 



" Where the ocean rolls the proudest, 

 Through the foam the sea-bird glides " — 



