22 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 



The Stormy Petrel (Thalassidroma pelagica, VIGORS). Lengthy 

 about six inches. 



"There are," says the same writer in another 

 place, " few persons who have crossed the Atlantic 

 that have not observed these solitary wanderers of 

 the deep skimming along the surface of the wild 

 and wasteful ocean ; flitting past the vessel like 

 swallows, or following in her wake, gleaning their 

 scanty pittance of food from the rough and whirling 

 surges. Habited in mourning, and making their ap- 

 pearance generally in greater numbers previous to 

 or during a storm, they have long been fearfully re- 

 garded by the ignorant and superstitious, not only as 

 the foreboding .messengers of tempests and dangers 

 to the hapless mariner, but as wicked agents, con- 

 nected some how or other in creating them. * No- 

 body,' say they, ' can tell anything of where they 

 come from, or how they breed, though (as sailors 

 sometimes say) it is supposed that they hatch their 

 eggs under their wings as they sit on the water.' 

 This mysterious uncertainty of their origin, and the 

 circumstances above recited, have doubtless given 

 rise to the opinion so prevalent among this class of 



