PETREL. 



America. There is little doubt that this movement 

 north was toward the nesting place of the birds ; 

 though whether they nestle there in rocks or on the 

 ice it is not easy to say. The direction which the 

 birds took, and the numbers of them when taken 

 together, afford, however, a pretty strong collateral 

 proof of the fact of there being open water near the 

 pole, and beyond the extreme cold experienced by 

 the navigators, which does not appear to be in a much 

 higher latitude than that in which Captain Ross saw 

 the fulmar, if indeed it is as high. 



The fulmar builds in all the northern countries 

 which have been visited in Spitzbergen, in Greenland, 

 in Iceland, and a few, it. is said, in St. Kilda, though 

 the petrel which is so plentiful there, is probably one 

 of the puffins. The fulmars never appear on the 

 southerly coasts of the British Islands, and but rarely 

 on the northerly, for it is only in very severe winters 

 that anything more than a mere sprinkling of them 

 reaches Orkney and Shetlantl. The nest contains 

 only one egg, as is the case with many sea birds ; 

 and it is curious that those birds which have such 

 small broods are yet far more numerous than birds 

 that have larger ones. Besides being eaten by the 

 sailors occasionally, or under particular circumstances, 

 these birds are eaten by the inhabitants of the remote 

 and cold islands ; and it is said that in St. Kilda they 

 are salted for winter provision, indiscriminately with 

 other birds. The oil is understood to be previously 

 extracted, and this oil is much prized by the simple 

 inhabitants of that lonely isle. They have not the 

 benefit, such as it is, of reading the marvellous lists of 

 infallible quack medicines which pollute the columns 

 of the newspapers, and tend to set the cupidity of 

 their proprietors over their boasted zeal for the inte- 

 rests and morals of the people. But still fulmar's 

 oil is in St. Kilda what Morison's pills, or anything 

 more famous and filthy, can be in England ; and it 

 has the advantage that nobody can be poisoned by it, 

 by what bungler soever it may be administered. A 

 young bird will yield nearly an English pint of this 

 oil, which is beautifully clear if kept above the tempe- 

 rature of fifty-two degrees of the common thermometer, 

 but if it be allowed to get cooler than this it becomes 

 turbid, and when once it does so it is not easily 

 cleared again. 



We may add, that the great fishing on the bank of 

 Newfoundland affords a rich time for the fulmar, which 

 greedily devours the offal of the cod as it is thrown 

 from the fishing-boats. In these places, or, indeed, in 

 any place where it hovers in expectancy of food, the 

 bird is easily caught with a baited hook cast on the 

 water, or swung in the air, for it is sufficiently bold to 

 approach within the length of a very short line. When 

 we consider its numbers, its activity, and the fact of 

 its being the only far sea scavenger of the Arctic Ocean, 

 this is one of the most interesting birds of the north. 



When we turn our attention to the south, we find 

 the importance of any one species of petrel lost in 

 the numbers of the species ; and we find them ap- 

 proaching gradually in size and in some other respects 

 to the large long-winged sea birds which are met with 

 there. Generally speaking, those birds of the south 

 have more colour in their 'plumage than the fulmars ; 

 and perhaps we might expect this, as they occur in a 

 lower latitude, and we find the fulmar paler in the 

 extreme north and sometimes white. It is not easy 

 to determine in every case, without a new examina- 

 tion, whether these birds are petrels or puffins ; be- 



cause the difference is more in the manners of th< 

 birds than even in their structure. 



Gigantic Petrel ( I\ gignntea). This is the larges 

 species which is known, specimens being met mea 

 suring forty inches in length, and about twice a 

 much in the spread of the wings. The upper part 

 are whitish mottled with brown. The scapulars, thi 

 coverts of the wings, the quills and the tail feather 

 are brown, with paler margins. The sides and fron 

 of the neck, and all the under parts are white ; thi 

 top of the head is blackish brown ; the feet are yel 

 lowish grey with black webs ; and the bill is brownis] 

 yellow, with a very large and strong yellow nail 

 This species is found only in the Antarctic Ocean 

 and may, perhaps, be considered as one of the mod 

 typical species there. 



Most of the other petrels of the Antarctic Sea ar 

 much smaller birds, generally about eight or tei 

 inches in length ; and they appear to differ from eacl 

 other in little else than size and colour. One migh 

 be prepared to expect that they should be more die 

 cursive birds than the petrel of the north, becaus< 

 there is an uninterrupted sea in their latitudes all thi 

 year round ; and thus the same bird can freely circum 

 navigate all the globe. Where many of them nestle i 

 quite unknown, and indeed we are nearly in the sami 

 state with the northern ones, for we do not knov 

 where those immense flocks which proceed northwan 

 id the summer find their nesting places. A goo< 

 many nestle in Terra del Fuego, the Falklan< 

 Islands, Georgia Island, to the south-east of these 

 and South Shetland, to the south-west of Cape Horn 

 But as they come seasonably into temperate lati 

 tudes, in every longitude of the South Sea, we ma; 

 naturally suppose that there are nesting places fo 

 them all round. The ice, however, will do for thi 

 purpose ; because a hole in the ice, while it remain 

 without melting, may make a very warm nest, am 

 there is no want of feathers wherewith to line thi 

 bottom. In the north we know that there are sonv 

 birds which do place their nest on the ice ; and thi 

 may be more general in the south. It is highly pro 

 bable that, if attention were paid to the motions o 

 these and other birds of the Antarctic regions, witl 

 due care, and in the proper spirit of philosophy 

 without any preconceived theory to trammel thi 

 mind, we might be put in possession of some mean 

 of at least guessing rationally at what may lie withii 

 those icy barriers of the southern sea, which excludi 

 us from actual observation. 



The flight of birds, when they are numerou 

 from any particular direction, or to any particula 

 direction, is always a matter worth attending to 

 The ancients saw this; but the low state of thei 

 knowledge unfitted them from making the prope 

 use of it ; and as people always do in such cases 

 they perverted it for superstitious purposes, an< 

 sought for a foreknowledge of the fate of humai 

 beings, from that which was simply an indication o 

 what had previously happened in some country o 

 another. Whence they come, and why, are the onl; 

 two questions to which the flight of birds can give an; 

 answer ; but the rapidity of their motions, and thi 

 length of distance for which they can come, rende 

 them both early and valuable messengers, if we wouh 

 but take the trouble of making ourselves understood 



Several species of petrels are mentioned as occur 

 ring habitually at intermediate latitudes, such a 

 about New Holland, and some of the groups o 



