PETREL. 



427 



considered as an unnatural accumulation of garbage. 

 It is astonishing how soon and with what certainty 

 garbage attracts all the scavenger-birds of the sea. 

 Thus, tor instance, it' there is a cleanly town upon the 

 shore and a fishing village at a little distance from it, 

 which is in general not remarkable for the cleanness 

 of the beach, gulls are almost constantly to be seen 

 parading about the village as if they formed part of 

 the establishment, while not a single gull visits the 

 town. 



The sea and those birds which are specially charged 

 with the office of keeping the surface of the sea clean 

 are very extensive subjects, however, and we c;m 

 afford room for no more general remarks, though the 

 subject is worthy, and \vell calculated to repay, the 

 closest attention that can be bestowed upon it. 



Petrels admit of subdivision into at least two 

 genera Proccllaria, or the larger petrels, which, as we 

 have said, congregate most plentifully in the Polar 

 Seas ; and ThalassiJronn, or those birds of smaller 

 size, and something of a swallow-like aspect, which 

 career more at large over the broad waters in warm 

 latitudes. In common English, the first are called 

 " Petrels," and the second " Storm Petrels ;" but the 

 generic names which have been given to them, have 

 almost the reverse meanings. ProceUaria is formed 

 from the Latin word procclla, which means a storm, 

 or a bustle and disturbance of almost any sort ; and 

 certainly, when the petrels are contending for the 

 krang 1 of a whale, or any other great prize, they make 

 no small proccila among themselves. The other 

 generic name is more happy, because it is more 

 descriptive of the general habits of the birds. Tha- 

 Inssidroma literally means that which courses, drives, 

 or careers over the surface of the sea; and this is 

 the general habit of the storm petrels, though they 

 frequently do alight upon ships, and surround them 

 with plaintive cries, especially ou dark nights during 

 storms, when the little creatures have been fatigued 

 by the fury of the wind, and can find no rest upon 

 the tumbling surface of the angry sea. 



The genus I'mrcllaria perhaps admits with pro- 

 priety of a farther division ; for though the birds 

 inhabit the same seas, and carry on the same kind of 

 trade, they do not do it exactly in the same manner. 

 This subdivision consists in separating, from the 

 petrels properly so called, those which are termed 

 puffing petrels ; and there is sufficient difference in 

 the structure of the bill, and the habit of the birds 

 upon the waters, to warrant this. The pitffins, or 

 members of the genus pujfiiutx, resemble the true 

 petrels much more than they do the storm petrels, 

 but still they are intermediate between, and may be 

 considered as more seaward birds than the petrels, 

 and less so than the storm petrels. We shall briefly 

 advert to those three genera as making up the family, 

 and mention one or two of the species in each. To 

 enumerate them all would far exceed our limits 

 their manners are so much the same that it would 

 involve much repetition, and very little is known 

 respecting- many of them, especially those of the 

 Antarctic Ocean. 



PROCELLAUIA, or petrels properly so called. The 

 characters of these are the bill about the same length 

 as the head, and very strongly formed ; depressed at 

 the base, but having that part fortified by a horny 

 tube, which contains the nostrils. The fact of the 

 opening of this tube being single, is one of the cha- 

 racteristic distinctions between a petrel and a puffin ; 



but it does not appear to be a very important one, 

 though the two tubes of the puffins may enable them 

 better to resist the entrance of the water, to which 

 they are more exposed than the others, in conse- 

 quence of their flying lower. A considerable portion 

 of the bill toward the base is straight, but the tip is 

 arched, forming a long, strong, and most efficient 

 nail or claw, with very short trenchant edges, between 

 which the tip of the under mandible is received. This 

 mandible is not bent downwards, but it is so formed 

 as that it slides against the nail of the upper one with 

 a very powerful cutting motion. Both mandibles 

 have also strong cutting edges, so that any ordinary 

 substance can be divided by their entire length. The 

 wings are long and pointed, the first quill being the 

 longest, though they are perhaps not quite so long 

 in proportion as those of the other genera. We 

 shall, however, notice the remaining characters 

 in describing the only species which frequents the 

 British seas, because as the others appear to differ 

 from it in little else than size and colour, this will 

 save repetition. 



The Fulmar Petrel (P. glacialls). This is the 

 petrel, par excellence, of the Northern Ocean, and the 

 one which attends so closely upon the northern whale 

 ships. It also appears in great numbers on those 

 parts of the coast which are favourable for its nesting 

 in such numbers, and it drives about so much wherever 

 it is seen, that it has got a vast number of names, 

 such as " Mollmock," " Mollduck," " John Down," 

 and a number of others. The general colour ig 

 whitish, and inclining to hoary on the back. The 

 wings have a dusky shade, and the head and under 

 part of the body are nearly white. The straight part 

 of the bill, and also the nasal tube, which, though it 

 has but one opening at the extremity, contains two 

 distinct nostrils, are brown, and the nail on the tip of 

 the instrument is yellowish. The inner side of this 

 nail is toothed as well as grooved, so that it can take 

 a firmer hold than probably can be taken by the bill 

 of any other bird whatever. The legs are dusk}', and 

 the irides of the eyes are yellow. Thus this powerful 

 scavenger of the sea is clad in but homely attire. 

 The colour is, however, subject to considerable vari- 

 ation, which renders it by no means unlikely that 

 those darker specimens which have been brought from 

 the same seas, and have had names given to them as 

 species, were nothing more than coloured varieties of 

 the fulmar. 



In the present state of our knowledge, therefore, 

 we are to consider the fulmar petrel as the only true 

 petrel of the north ; and its distinguishing characters 

 are, that it remains more within its locality, builds 

 higher, flies higher, and is perhaps a more daring 

 bird than any of the puffins of the same sea. In the 

 Southern Ocean there is a bird very like this, but 

 whether exactly the same or not it is impossible to 

 say, for the species of petrels are so numerous there, 

 that one out of the number is little or nothing. 



The flights of fulmars, which are sometimes seen 

 in very high latitudes, are exceedingly great. When 

 Captain Ross made his first voyage to that part of 

 the world, he was detained by the ice for about ten 

 days, in about 71 north latitude. During those days 

 a stream of fulmars continued setting northward over 

 the vessel, unequalled by any known flight, except 

 that of the ash-coloured puffins in Bass's Strait, 

 between New Holland and Van Diemen's Island, or 

 that of the passenger pigeons in the great valley of 



