THE STORMY PETREL. 44? 



Gull, and the Stormy Petrel, better known to sailors by 

 the name of Mother Carey's Chickens, about the size, 

 and in appearance not unlike the Swift or largest 

 Swallow. Their whole bodies seem to be filled and 

 impregnated with oil to such a degree, that in some of 

 the most remote islands of the Hebrides the inhabitants 

 actually form them into candles, by merely passing a 

 rush through the body and out at the beak, which is 

 found to burn as well as if dipped in tallow or any other 

 grease. So full are they of this oil, that the Fulmar 

 uses it as a weapon of defence, and when taken will 

 squirt over the person who handles it, a strong jet of 

 pure oily liquid. When shot, if it falls into the sea, a 

 partial calm is created by the quantity ejected from its- 

 mouth. 



With their quantity of down, which supplies the 

 islanders with warm bedding, and fat, which is con- 

 sidered an efficacious remedy for wounds; as is their 

 oil, which is preserved in large bunches of long bladders, 

 made of the gorge or stomach of the Solan Geese; 

 these birds become more valuable to the inhabitants 

 than the poultry tribe to us. The poor people of St. 

 Kilda, in a word, prize them so highly that it is prover- 

 bial with them to say, " Deprive us of the Petrel and 

 Fulmar, and St. Kilda is no more." 



They build, like most other sea-birds, in holes and 

 chinks of rocks, or on the ledges of precipices; though 

 upon Norfolk island, in Australia, a species has been 

 discovered which burrows in sand like rabbits, lying .hid 

 in the holes by day, and sallying forth in the evening in- 

 quest of food. Their reason for concealing themselves 

 appears to be well founded; for no doubt this is the 

 same species met with in the other remote islands of the 

 Southern Indian Seas, spoken of* as living in perpetual 

 dread of another of its own genus, the great Black Petrel 

 (Procellaria, eguinoctialis) ; and well it may, for its sable 



* MACARTNEY'S Voyage, vol. i. 



