36 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2-* s. vi. 132., Jblt lo. '58. 



buried, out of compassion, but without ceremony or 

 prayers. See Gall. Christ, ix. col. 626. &c." 



It will be observed that the date of his murder 

 is imperfect in the above extract, as there is, 

 unfortunately, an error in the type in my copy 

 of Orderic by Bohn ; and as I have not got Gallia 

 Christiana, I am unable to supply the year. I 

 should have supposed it to have been 1112, but 

 then another difficulty occurs, as the 22d of April, 

 1112, did not fall on Tuesday, but on a Monday, 

 and the day mentioned in the text of Orderic is 

 "Friday in Easter week," which was the 26th of 

 April in 1112 : nor can it be 1122, setting aside 

 the improbability of Baudri's episcopate at Laon 

 having lasted so long ; but this point can be cleared 

 up by reference to the Gall. Christ.* 



Wuldricus, Goldric, or Baudri, appears to have 

 held the post of Chancellor of England from 1104 

 to 1107, according to Mr. Hardy's Roll; while 

 Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chancellors, 

 enumerates him as next in the series after Roger : 

 but great obscurity prevails with respect to the 

 delivery of the great seal during the early part 

 of the reign of King Henry I. J. C. R. in his 

 note on Waldric is therefore quite correct in 

 pointing out, and correcting the mistake made, 

 both by Dr. Lingard and Mr. Foss, as to his 

 having been Bishop of Llandaff, instead of Laon, 

 arising from the error in the old edition of Or- 

 deric — ■ Landavensis for Laudunensis — but which, 

 as I have already shown, is stated correctly in 

 Mr. Forester's new and excellent translation of 

 Ordericus Vitalis, based on the edition published 

 by the Societe de VHistoire de France, 1838 — 1855, 

 under the care of MM. Auguste Le Prevost and 

 Leopold Delisle, of Paris. A. S. A. 



Barrackpore, E. I., April 14. 



THE PETRILS, OR MOTHER CAREY S CHICKENS. 



(2'"» S. V. 317. 506.) 



The quotation by Mr. Hackwood from Knapp's 

 Knowledge for the People, as to the apparition of 

 these birds " upon the approach or during the con- 

 tinuation of a gale," is the very reverse of my 

 own experience during eleven voyages across the 

 Atlantic in various directions. Sailors no longer 

 look upon them as harbingers of the tempest, al- 

 though they did so formerly. No superstition, 

 however, admits of an easier explanation in ac- 

 cordance with the known laws of nature. 



All animated beings, like plants, have their cir- 

 cumscribed stations in creation — localities in w jich 

 they are adapted to live and " find pasture." (See 

 Lyell's Princ. of Geol., c. 41.). The petrils (not 

 petrels, which is French) have their appointed 



[* The correct date is 26th of April, 1112 ; or as given 

 in Gallia Christiana, " vii. cal. Mail, an. 1112, feriav. heb- 

 domadas Paschalia."] 



station. It is the ship, therefore, which goes to 

 these birds, and not the birds that come to the 

 ship : in other words, the ship gets into their sta- 

 tion, whence, sometimes, she may be wafted into a 

 storm ; hence the original superstition. As I have 

 frequently seen these birds, and as their appari- 

 tion was never followed by a tempest, it is evident 

 that this physical cause did not come into opera- 

 tion. That is, our ship got into the station of 

 these birds, which happened not to be within the 

 range of the storm-circuit — assuming that storms 

 are always raging in certain latitudes, within or 

 without which there may be only a steady breeze, 

 or even a dead calm — according to the modern 

 "law of storms." The steady breeze may waft 

 the ship in a few hours into the main sweep of the 

 tempest. Now, there will always be a chance of 

 that result — until we be able to avoid it by an 

 accurate knowledge of the " law of storms," and 

 of the course which we must steer according to 

 the indications of the barometer and the direction 

 of the wind. 



I can bear witness to the superstition as it was 

 some six-and-thirty years ago, in my childhood. 

 My father caught one of these birds with a line, 

 and gave it to me. A murmur instantly arose 

 amongst the crew, and I was forced to part with 

 my captive, which seemed comfortable enough. 

 Had we got into the storm-circuit, perhaps they 

 would have been tempted to make another Jonas 

 of me to appease Mother Carey. 



The petril keeps in the wake of the ship, a few 

 yards from the rudder, disporting in the eddies, 

 and literally "picking up a living" from the surface 

 of the wave. It must be endowed with great 

 strength of wing, since it follows the ship for many 

 days together. As it has never been seen ori land, 

 it is probable that, like other sea-birds, its home 

 is some desolate rock in the waste of ocean, of 

 which, in its small way, it is a scavenger. Poeti- 

 cally, of course, we say : — 



" Her nest the wave — her fate to roam 

 Like bubbles of the Ocean's foam." 



Delighting in an agitated sea, which keeps its 

 food on the surface, these birds are scientifically 

 called procellai-ia. In their rapid flight — being 

 palmiped or web-footed — they skim over the sur- 

 face of the waves, and even " walk on the water." 

 Hence, in foct, the name petril, from the Italian 

 diminutive Pietrillo, or little Peter, alluding to the 

 fact recorded of St. Peter in the Gospel (Matt, 

 xiv.). 



In " ]Sr. & Q." (2°* S. V. 317.), the name " Mo- 

 ther Carey" was derived from Mater cara, as re- 

 ferred to the Virgin Mary. The derivation is 

 curious, but, I fear, rather far-fetched and impro- 

 bable. If that name had ever been given to the 

 bird as translated or upset literally into an Eng- 

 lish representative of the original, it must have 

 been givea originally by the Italians or the Spa- 



