THE STORMY PETREL. 395 



Petrel, better known to sailors by the name of Mother Carey's 

 Chickens, about the size of, and in appearance not unlike, the 

 Swift, or largest Swallow, being perhaps the most frequent in 

 occurrence. Their whole bodies seem to be filled and impreg- 

 nated 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 considered an effica- 

 cious 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 

 proverbial 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 ; and well it may, for its sable enemies are 

 incessantly looking out for its heart and liver, on which alone 

 they feed, leaving the rest of the body untouched. 



At night, therefore, only, they venture forth, but not with 

 much safety, for then a new danger awaits them, in the shape 

 of the seal-catchers, who attract them by torches, and kill them 

 * Macartney's Voyage ; vol. i. 



