710 PROCELLARID,. 



ii. p. 437. Procellaria oceanica, Kuhl., Beitr. Z. Zool. p. 136, pi. 10, fig.'i. 

 Procellaria Wilsoni, Bonap., Journ. Acad. PhiL iii. pi. 2. p. 231, pi. 9, fig. 2. 



Thalassidroma, Wilsoni, Gould. B. Austr., vii. pi. 65. Thalassidroma ? 



Jerd., B. Ind. ii. p. 827 ; Legge, Sir. F. iii. p. 375. WILSON'S PETREL. 



General plumage deep sooty brown, or brownish black, blackish on the 

 primaries, tertiaries, occiput, nape and tail ; secondary greater coverts and 

 latest secondaries wood brown or pale hair brown, narrowly margined 

 towards the tips with yellowish white ; upper tail coverts, flanks and bases of 

 some of the external under tail coverts pure white ; a few of the feathers of 

 the lower abdomen narrowly fringed with white ; bill dull black ; legs and 

 feet polished black, with a conspicuous pale yellow patch in the centre of each 

 web ; irides blackish. 



Length. 7*12 inches ; wing 6^25 ; tarsus 1-4 ; bill at front O*$ ; from gape 

 0*7; hind toe obsolete; hind claw just visible as a tiny spur at the base of 

 the tarsus. (Hume, Str. F. v., p. 291.) 



Hab. Sind and Mekran Coast ; also the Ganges, the Bay of Bengal, and 

 the Tenasserim Coast. 



Stormy Petrels, vulgarly known to sailors as Mother Carey's chickens, and 

 disliked by them as being foretellers of an approaching storm, have long been 

 celebrated for the wonderful manner by which they traverse the ocean, flying 

 close above the water, or passing over the wavy billows pattering the surface 

 with their webbed feet. Petrels are usually seen in windy or stormy weather, 

 chiefly because " the marine creatures are flung to the surface by the chop- 

 ping waves, and can be easily picked up as the bird pursues its course." 

 Crustaceans, fish, molluscs and floating algae are the chief food of Petrels, and 

 it is said they will follow in small flocks under the wake of a ship for the sake 

 of picking up refuse food thrown overboard. On the Mekran and Sind 

 Coasts they are usually met with singly or in pairs flying backwards just above 

 the surface of the water, as Jerdon justly remarks " much resembling swifts, 

 both in general appearance, colour and flight." They are numerous between 

 Charbar and Pusnee, and beyond the mouths of the Indus on the Kurrachee 

 Coast; Jerdon records this species from the mouths of the Ganges and 

 throughout the Bay of Bengal. 



Gen. Daption. Stephens. 

 Wings long ; tail moderate ; bill hooked at the tip, and very weak. 



1413. Daption capensiS (Linn.), Gould, B. Austr. vii. pi. 53; 

 Sharpe, Rep. Trans. Venus Exped., p. 118; Hume, Str. F. vii. pp. 442, 463 ; 

 viii. p. 115; Legge, B. Ceylon, p. 1056; Oates, B. Br. Burm.\\. p. 438. 

 Procellaria capensis, Linn., Syst. Nat. i. p. 213. The CAPE PETREL. 



Whole head, chin, sides and back of the neck, upper back and lesser wing 

 coverts sooty brown ; lower back, upper tail coverts, scapulars and tertiaries 



