9O THE BOOK OF MIGRATORY BIRDS 



their wings enable them with ease to assume this position. 

 In calm weather they perform the same manoeuvre by 

 keeping their wings just as much in action as to prevent 

 their feet from sinking below the surface." 



In "days long past, happily, the mariner regarded this 

 species of bird as the harbingers of all that is evil. They 

 have been called " witches," "the Devil's birds," and 

 "Mother Gary's chickens," probably from some celebrated 

 ideal hag of that name ; and their unexpected and numerous 

 appearance in those days threw a momentary damp over 

 the mind of the hardiest seaman. 



When we inquire, by diligent research, into the un- 

 varnished 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 endowed 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 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 approaching hurricane. 



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

 night lighthouse that, starlike, guides them on their 

 watery way, or the buoy that warns them of the sunken 

 rocks below, as this harmless wanderer, whose manner 

 informs them of the approach of the storm, and thereby 

 enables them to prepare for it." 



The petrels are nocturnal birds. When, therefore, they 

 are seen flying about and feeding by day, the fact appears 

 to indicate that they have been driven from their usual 

 quarters by a storm ; and hence, perhaps, arose the associa- 

 tion of the bird with the tempest. The once popular 



