426 



PETREL. 



upon Noah and his family. Had it not been for the 

 timely visit of those birds, Columbus might have been 

 flung in the sea, and the vessel might have returned 

 or have been wrecked. America might have re- 

 mained undiscovered, and the darkness of the middle 

 ages might have been brooding over Europe up to 

 the present hour. 



If there were nothing in the history of the petrels 

 but this part which they had in the discovery of 

 America, they would have been entitled to rank high 

 among the feathered race. But their own history is 

 a highly important one. They are perhaps the most 

 numerous of the feathered tribes in individuals, though 

 not in species ; and they are dispersed over every 

 known sea, being, in fact, the grand scavengers of the 

 surface of that mighty element. The other long- 

 winged and web-footed birds, no doubt, also ply the 

 same trade ; but they are comparatively local in their 

 vocation. The greater number of them are on or 

 near the shores ; and though there are some, and 

 those very large and splendid ones, which are dis- 

 cursive over the broad waters, yet they are confined 

 to particular latitudes, and none of them are so sea- 

 ward as some of the petrels. Petrels are of various 

 sizes and of different habits, and as such they are 

 adapted to different situations upon the waters the 

 north and south. 



The larger ones are accumulated in greatest num- 

 bers in the cold latitudes both of the northern hemi- 

 sphere and the southern. In summer they extend 

 to the very highest latitudes which man has been able 

 to reach on the sea, and should there be clear water 

 at either of the poles, which is not unlikely, as the 

 poles do not appear to be the points of greatest cold, 

 it is probable that numbers may seasonally visit the 

 poles themselves. They are much more abundant in 

 the southern hemisphere than in the northern ; and 

 we might expect this, because there is a greater extent 

 of sea in the south, and it is on the sea chiefly that 

 they depend. Some of the southern ones are much 

 larger than the northern ; but we are not very well 

 acquainted with the birds frequenting the borders of 

 the southern ice, for those borders are so extensive 

 that it is scarcely possible to explore them. We do 

 not even know what land there may be within those 

 regions to furnish nesting places for those birds which 

 consume the surface refuse of the sea there. 



We say consume the surface refuse, because this 

 appears to be the special office of the petrels ; and 

 we find their numbers are always great in proportion 

 to the work which they have to do, and their bold- 

 ness and voracity are in proportion. Taking the 

 whole family, they may be said to be among the most 

 omnivorous birds, eating indiscriminately dead car- 

 casses that happen to be floating, fishes when they 

 can catch them, molluscous animals, and, in short, 

 every animal product of the sea, whether living or 

 dead, so that they can master it. 



In the middle latitudes, that is from the centre of 

 the one temperate zone to the centre of the other, 

 their appearance and also their habits are a little 

 different. This does not arise from the sea being 

 less productive in those regions than in the regions 

 of the poles ; but .the polar oceans are the great 

 eddies of the grand ocean currents, to which no small 

 quantity of the lighter products of the intermediate 

 oceans are carried. Thus, for instance, a great deal 

 of the produce of the American seas, from Davis' 

 Strait south to the extremity of the West Indian seas, 



is carried along the margin of the polar iee by the 

 current of the Atlantic, which is indicated by the 

 gulf stream on the American shores. There is 

 even a great deal of the waste of the northern lands 

 Carried annually down into those northern seas. The 

 storms of winter destroy many birds and small mam- 

 malia, which are carried down to the sea during the 

 thaws and freshes in the spring. These of course go 

 to feed the scavenger-birds of the sea, thoueh, as the 

 gulls are somewhat less seaward than the petrels, the 

 greater share of this refuse of the land falls to them. 

 Dead seals form a considerable portion of the food 

 of the larger petrels. Those seals congregate in. im- 

 mense numbers at their favourite stations, which are 

 generally those where a current along a coast, through 

 a strait or round an island, brings plenty of food for 

 fishes, and consequently plenty of fishes to feed the 

 seals. These seals, when their numbers are not kept 

 down by incessant fishing, are subject to periodical 

 maladies which carry off great numbers of them 

 numbers so great indeed that, if a long and severe 

 storm ensues, their dead bodies cover the beaches of 

 coasts at a considerable distance from their natural 

 habitations when alive. This mortality among the 

 seals is of course a feasting time with the petrels, the 

 points of whose bills are so formed that they cut like 

 pincers, and very speedily tear the toughest carcass 

 to pieces. The whale and seal fishings are also times 

 of plenty to the petrels of the neighbourhood ; and, 

 though the refuse which is left upon these occasions 

 attracts several others of the sea scavengers, the pe- 

 trels are by far the most numerous, and the most 

 daring in attempting indiscriminately to seize every 

 eatable substance. In consequence of this, the cut- 

 ting up of a whale is a scene of great bustle and 

 activity ; as it. is rather unpleasant work though pro- 

 fitable, the sailors flense off the blubber as speedily as 

 they can, and as that is the time of the profit of the 

 voyage, in which they all partake more or less, they 

 are in high glee. The birds too sometimes almost 

 darken the air, keep tip an incessant coil of squeaking 

 and screaming, and ever and anon commit petty 

 larceny upon pieces of the blubber. If one gets a 

 piece, others are sure to attack him, and others these 

 again, upon which occasions they battle with great 

 and very often with fatal desperation. When they 

 are killed, however, the dead bodies of their fellows 

 is just as welcome food for the survivors as any other 

 animal matter. When, owing to any of these causes, 

 the petrels get an extraordinary share of oily food, 

 whether of the whale or seal families, or of any others, 

 they get exceedingly fat ; but the fat of them is then 

 offensively rancid, and even the flesh is not eatable 

 by any one who can procure other food. We believe 

 that the same process which the northern islanders 

 resort to for purifying the flesh of many sea birds 

 would succeed with the petrels even at this season ; 

 and, if it could be carried into execution, these birds 

 might furnish an abundant supply of fresh provisions. 

 The plan is to clean and skin the bird?, carefully re- 

 move all the fat, both external and internal, and then 

 bury the flesh in fresh sweet vegetable mould for a 

 day and night or more. 



When the petrels are left to the ordinary produce 

 of the sea, their flesh is not so rancid, and the sailors 

 often boil them down into a kind of soup. They are 

 best on the currents, where their food may be sup- 

 posed to be more miscellaneous than when numbers 

 are attracted to a particular spot, by what may be 



