WILSON'S PETREL. 



,ETRELS are dispersed 

 throughout all the seas 

 and oceans of the world. 

 Wilson's Stormy Petrel is 

 one of the best known 

 and commonest. It is to be met with 

 nearly everywhere over the entire 

 watery surface of the globe far north 

 in the icy regions of the Arctic seas 

 and south to the sunny isles of south- 

 ern oceans. It breeds in the months 

 of March, April, May, June, July and 

 August, according to the locality, in 

 the northern latitudes of Europe, east- 

 ern and western North America. Dr. 

 J. H. Kidder found it on Kergulen 

 Island, southeast of Africa. He had 

 previously seen the birds at the sea 

 coast off the Cape of Good Hope, and, 

 on December 14, saw them out by day 

 feeding on the oily matter floating away 

 from the carcass of a sea-elephant. The 

 birds, he says, frequent the rocky parts 

 of hillsides, and flitting about like 

 swallows, catch very minute insects. 

 " Mother Carey's Chicken," as it is 

 called by sailors, is widely believed to 

 be the harbinger of bad weather, and 

 many superstitions have grown out of 

 the habit which they possess of appar- 

 ently walking on the surface of the 

 water as the Apostle St. Peter is 

 recorded to have done. It is the 

 smallest of the web-footed birds, yet 

 few storms are violent enough to keep 

 it from wandering over the waves in 

 search of the food that the disturbed 

 water casts to the surface. 



The Stormy Petrel is so exceedingly 

 oily in texture, that the inhabitants of 

 the Ferol islands draw a wick through 

 its body and use it as a lamp. 



Wilson gives the following account 

 of its habits while following a ship 

 under sail: 



" It is indeed an interesting sight to 

 observe these little birds in a gale, 

 coursing over the waves, down the 

 declivities, up the ascents of the foam- 

 ing surf that threatens to bend over 

 their head ; sweeping along through 

 the hollow troughs of the sea, as in a 

 sheltered valley, and again mounting 

 with the rising billow, and just above 

 its surface, occasionally dropping their 

 feet, wnich, striking the water, throws 

 the birds up again with additional 

 force; sometimes leaping, with both 

 legs parallel, on the surface of the 

 roughest wave for several yards at a 

 time. Meanwhile they continue cours- 

 ing from side to side of the ship's 

 wake, making excursions far and 

 wide, to the right and to the left, 

 now a great way ahead, and now 

 shooting astern for several hundred 

 yards, returning again to the ship, as 

 if she were all the time stationary', 

 though perhaps running at the rate 

 of ten knots an hour ! But the most 

 singular peculiarity of this bird is its 

 faculty of standing and even running 

 on the surface of the water, which 

 it performs with apparent facility. 

 When any greasy matter is thrown 

 overboard these birds instantly collect 

 around it, and face to windward, with 

 their long wings expanded and their 

 webbed feet patting the water, which 

 the lightness of their bodies and the 

 action of the wind on their wings 

 enable them to do with ease. In calm 

 weather they perform the same ma- 

 neuver by keeping their wings just 

 so much in action as to prevent their 

 feet from sinking below the surface." 



Rev. Mr. Eaton says that this species 

 nests under large rocks not far from 

 the beach. Egg, one, white. 



