Cts ol en Oa Sl Sa i 
PETRELS. 
Petrels — Characteristics — Stormy Petrel—Manx Shear- 
Changes of Plumage—Fulmar water. 
Petrel — Fork-tailed Petrel — 
F all seabirds, the Petrels are the most pelagic. 
They are the birds of the wide ocean, even 
showing small partiality for narrow seas, and chiefly 
frequenting for breeding purposes only such spots 
as face the widest expanses of water. They are 
the most marine of birds, yet they form one of the 
least apparent features in the bird-life of the sea, 
and more especially when that bird-life is studied 
from the coast. Their crepuscular, or nocturnal, 
habits during their short visits to the land to breed, 
their sombre hues, their low flight, just above the 
waves, all combine in rendering these birds excep- 
tionally difficult of observation. The Petrels 
present such exclusively distinctive characters that 
many systematists relegate them to an order by 
themselves. This order is termed TuBINARES, 
because the birds contained in it have the nostrils 
tubular—a character which serves, at a glance, to 
