THE PETREL. 23 



men, that they are in some way or other connected 

 with the prince of the power of the air. In every 

 country where they are known, their names have 

 borne some affinity to this belief. They have been 

 called witches,* stormy petrels, the Devil's birds, 

 and Mother Gary's chickens,! probably from some 

 celebrated ideal hag of that name; and their un- 

 expected and numerous appearance has frequently 

 thrown a momentary damp over the mind of the 

 hardiest seaman. It is the business of the natural- 

 ist and the glory of philosophy to examine into the 

 reality of these things ; to dissipate the clouds of 

 error and superstition, wherever they darken and 

 bewilder the human understanding, and to illustrate 

 nature with the radiance of truth. "J 



When we inquire, accordingly, into the unvarnish- 

 ed history of this ominous bird, we find that it is by 

 no means peculiar in presaging storms, for many 

 others of very different families are evidently en- 

 dowed with an equally nice perception of a change 

 in the atmosphere. Hence it is that, before rain, 

 swallows are seen more eagerly hawking for flies, 

 and ducks carefully trimming their feathers, and 

 tossing up water over their backs, to try whether it 

 will run off again without wetting them. But it 

 would be as absurd to accuse the swallows and 

 ducks on that account of being the cause of rain, as 

 to impute a tempest to the spiteful malice of the 

 poor petrels. Seamen ought rather to be thankful 

 to them for the warning which their delicate feelings 

 of aerial change enable them to give of an approach- 

 ing hurricane. 



" As well," says Wilson, " might they curse the 

 midnight lighthouse that, starlike, guides them on 



* Pennant, Arctic Zool., p. 464. 



t " This name seems to have been originally given them by 

 Captain Carteret's sailors, who met with these birds on the coast 

 of Chili. See Hawkesworth's Voyages, i., 203." 



t American Ornithology, vii., 95. 



