136 THE STORMY PETREL. 



or been driven from their general stations by tempes- 

 tuous weather. An event like this, the violent gale of 

 All-hallows eve, in 1824, brought to us the stormy 

 petrel (procellaria pelagica) ; a bird that resides far in 

 the depths of the ocean, does not approach our shores, 

 it is believed, except for the purposes of incubation, 

 and we know only one place, the Isle of Sky, that it 

 haunts even for this short period. It is a creature 



" that roams on her sea-wing, j 



Unfatigued, and ever sleeps, i 



Calm, upon the toiling deeps." 



It is a pretty good manifestation of the strength and 

 extent of that hurricane, which could catch up a bird 

 with a wing so powerful as to enable it to riot in the 

 whirlwind and enjoy the storm, and bear it away irre- 

 sistibly, perhaps, from the Atlantic waves, over such a 

 space of land and ocean, and then dash it down on a 

 rather elevated common in this parish, whence it was 

 brought to me in a very perfect state. This little crea- 

 ture, scarcely as big again as a swallow, and the smallest 

 of all our web-footed birds, has, like all the others of 

 its genus, that extraordinary tube on its upper mandi- 

 ble, through which it spirts out an oily matter when 

 irritated; but the real object of this singular provision 

 seems unknown. Our seamen amuse themselves during 

 the monotony of a voyage with the vagaries of " mother 

 Carey's chickens," as they have from very early times 

 called this bird. The petrels seem to repose in a com- 

 mon breeze, but upon the approach, or during the con- 

 tinuation, of a gale, they surround a ship, and catch up 

 the small animals which the agitated ocean brings near 

 the surface, or any food that may be dropped from the 

 vessel. Whisking with the celerity of an arrow through 

 the deep valleys of the abyss, and darting away over 

 the foaming crest of some mountain wave, they attend 

 the laboring bark in all her perilous course. When the 

 storm subsides they retire to rest, and are no more seen. 

 The presence of this petrel was thought in times past 

 to predict a storm, and it was consequently looked upon 

 as an unwelcome visitant. 





