210 THE STORMY PETREL. 



ORDER PALMIPEDES. 



The Stormy Petrel 

 Procellaria Pelagica. LINN. 



BEWICK describes this bird as the least of all 

 the web-footed birds, measuring only about six 

 inches in length, and thirteen in breadth. The 

 upper parts of the plumage are black, sleek, and 

 glossed with bluish reflections ; the brow, cheeks, 

 and under parts, sooty brown ; some of the fea- 

 thers on the sides of the tail white; legs slender, 

 black, and scarcely an inch and three quarters 

 in length from the knee-joint to the end of the 

 toes. It resembles the chimney-swallow in its 

 general appearance, and the swiftness of its 

 flight. Cuvier mentions, as common to all the 

 petrels, that they have their bills bent at the 

 end, their nostrils united in one tube, their feet 

 with a claw or spur on the heel in the place of a 

 thumb. The most remarkable circumstance in 

 the habits of these little birds is their power of 



