in Freedom 143 



which might have been a fatal one, and how she 

 endeavoured to make the best of a nasty job. 



Another day she laughingly returned to the scene 

 of the disaster, nothing daunted. 



A British heart is not easily cowed, even when the 

 body is wounded ! 



So we set to work again, and with due caution in 

 removing the stories, were rewarded by finding not 

 only several stormy petrels, but also eggs. The whole 

 of the long stretch of rocky bank was evidently full of 

 them. 



They, like so many sea-birds, only lay one egg, 

 which, when the yoke is within the shell, is of a 

 delicate whitish pink, owing to the thinness of the 

 shell. When blown it is quite white. 



At the rounder end of the egg there is usually a 

 zone of minutest spots of dull reddish brown, which 

 in some instances is merely a light powdering. One 

 is able to remove the little petrels from under the 

 stones, when they immediately open their bills to eject, 

 with a spurt, quite a quantity of rich brownish oily 

 matter. 



When you open your hand and let the little 

 fellows go, they flit away with an uneven flight, jerking 

 first in one direction and then another, until they gain 

 the element on which they are most at home, when 

 they move away rapidly close over the surface of the 

 waves, their white tail-coverts showing conspicuously. 



They have the slenderest little black legs, with 

 tiny webbed feet. 



The smallest of sea-birds. 



