116 Birds of Canada. 
little beyond its tip; tarsus, one and a half 
inches in length. Breeds on the small islands off 
the coast of Nova Scotia. Its habits and gene- 
ral color are similar to those of Leach’s Petrel. 
This is the bird so much dreaded by sailors as 
the harbinger of a storm, and to which they 
have given the name of “Mother Carey's 
Chicken.” It is met with on every part of the 
ocean, diving or skimming over the surface of 
the rolling waves of the most tempestuous sea. 
Captain Sir James Clark Ross, in his Voyage, 
&c., to the Antarctic Regions, observes that, when 
invlat. '\47°.17 0S, long. 58 50: ee ae ete 
accompanied on our course by petrels of two or 
three different kinds. These birds added a 
degree of cheerfulness to our solitary wanderings, 
which contrasted strongly with the dreary and 
unvarying stillness of the tropical region, where 
not a sea-bird is to be seen, except only in the 
vicinity of its few scattered islets, which is the 
more remarkable where the ocean abounds so 
plentifully with creatures fit for their food.” 
Sub-Family PUFFINUS. 
Puffinus cinereus —Wandering Shearwater. 
This bird frequents the sea coast of the 
maritime provinces. Upper parts, deep brown ; 
lower parts, grayish-white ; bill, yellowish-green ; 
feet, light greenish-gray ; length, twenty inches. 
