394 PETRELS AND SHEARWATERS 



been supposed, and they must be regarded as holding a unique 

 position among birds in this respect. It is certainly significant in this 

 connection to note that Yarrell says of the storm-petrel that it " picks 

 its food from the surface of the water, planting its webbed feet on the 

 surface, and supporting the body by fluttering its wings." That is to 

 say, it picks up food from the water much as other birds do from land. 

 Yet one would hardly suppose that this precise fashion of feeding 

 would have been of such vital importance as to render such long 

 legs a necessity. One would suppose that since they spend much 

 time afloat with closed wings, they would have been able to procure an 

 abundance of food while thus at rest. During the summer months, 

 and in fine weather, according to Yarrell, this bird may be seen hawking 

 insects, swallow fashion, sometimes dipping suddenly seawards but 

 never alighting. And in like manner Wilson's-petrel was seen at 

 Kerguelen Island by the Rev. A. E. Eaton, then naturalist to the 

 " Transit of Venus " Expedition in 1874, flying not only over the sea 

 like swallows, but turning inland and coursing low over the ground, 

 following the course of the valleys. But he surmised that they were 

 turning inland from the bay as a short cut to other inlets from the 

 sea. The late Dr. E. A. Wilson, during the Antarctic Expedition 

 1901 -4, 1 met with specimens "on more than one occasion" on the 

 great ice-plain of the Great Barrier some sixty miles from open water, 

 " but always on the wing, and apparently never tired." Its flight, he 

 remarks, recalled that of the " familiar martin, for it flits here and 

 there exactly as though in search of insects on the wing. Occasion- 

 ally it sails with outstretched wings." But excursions inland, such as 

 Wilson's-petrel occasionally makes, seem never to be indulged in by 

 any other petrel, which may be regarded as birds which never volun- 

 tarily leave the sea. 



The stomachs of these small petrels usually contain small stones, 

 otoliths, minute shells, and oil. Ussher and Warren (Birds of 



' National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904, vol. ii., 1007, p. 78. It might be as well to state 

 that this strange title refers to the British Antarctic "Discovery" Expedition under the late 

 Captain Scott, R.N. 



