THE STORMY PETREL. 215 



to disregard ; and continuing his search, returned 

 in about half an hour with seven or eight of the 

 stormy petrels tied up in an old stocking; and a 

 pair of Manks puffins, together with their eggs. 

 The birds, he told me, he had no difficulty in 

 capturing. The eggs of the stormy petrel are 

 surprisingly large, considering the diminutive 

 size of the bird, being as large as those of the 

 thrush. The female lays two eggs of a dingy 

 white, encircled at the larger end by a ring of 

 fine rust-coloured freckles. The birds merely 

 collect a few pieces of dried grass, with a feather 

 or two, barely sufficient to prevent the eggs from 

 rolling, or moving on the rock."* 



What became of the poor petrels, thus seized 

 in their rocky fastnesses, and carried away cap- 

 tive by the hand of the spoiler, the writer does 

 not say. They were probably destined to enrich 

 some inland museum, and did not return to tell 

 the perils of the land to their friends on the 

 ocean, and rejoice with them in the safety of 

 rolling billows and foaming surges. 



" The stormy petrel," says Wilson, " is found 

 over the whole Atlantic ocean, from Europe to 



* See, Account of an Ornithological Visit to the Islands 

 of Shetland and Orkney. By R. Drosier, Esq. in Mag. of 

 Nat. Hist. No. 14, 



