(C 



BIRDS, 3G5 



associated with those harmless Httle birds. Their dusky 

 plumage, diminutive size, their habit of running upon the 

 surface of the water, and the circumstances under which the 

 mariner sees them, account very naturally for the feelings with 

 which he regai-ds them. Very differently are they viewed at 

 St. Kilda, one of the northern islands of Scotland. There the 

 birds are regarded as benefactoi-s, giving the means of light 

 throughout the long nights of winter ; for so full of oil is the 

 body, that a wick passed through it will bum as if fed from 

 the oil-reservoir of a lamp. The usual practice of the inha- 

 bitants, however, is to collect the oil by itself. Mr. John 

 Macgillivray, who visited the Hebrides in 18-iO, states,* 

 the bird sits very close upon the nest, from which it will 

 allow itself to be taken by the hand, vomiting on being 

 handled a quantity of pure oil, which is carefully preserved 

 by the fowlers, and the bird allowed to escape." A larger 

 species, the Fulmar Petrel (^Procellaria glacialis) is even more 

 valuable to the inhabitants of St. Kilda. "This bird," 

 says Mr. J. Macgillivray, " exists here in almost incredible 

 numbers, and to the natives is by far the most important of 

 the productions of the island. It forms one of the principal 

 means of support to the inliabitants, who daily risk their lives 

 in its pursuit. The old birds, on being seized, instantly 

 vomit a quantity of clear and amber-coloured oil, which im- 

 parts to the whole bird, its nest and young, and even to the 

 rock which it frequents, a peculiar and very disagreeable 

 odour." Within the last few years only, according to Mr. 

 W. Thompson, has the Fulmar been known to visit the Irish 

 coast. The Stormy Petrel, on the contrary, is at all times to 

 be met with on the western shores, and breeds on several of 

 the islands which are washed bv the Atlantic. f Mr. Georsfe 

 C. Hyndman, who visited Tory Island, ofi' the north coast of 

 the County Donegal, found the Stormy Petrel living com- 

 fortably in the Kabbit burrows, and there bringing out its 

 young. After the hurricane of the 7th of Januaiy, 1839, 

 Petrels were found not only in the central parts of Ireland, but 

 even in the extreme east, having been driven across the island 

 by the violence of the gale,J 



• Edinburgh New Phil. Journal. 

 t W. Thompson's Report on the Fauna, 1840. 



X W. Thompson, Note on the Effects of the Hurricane on the Lower 

 Animals. Anuals of Natural History. 



