PETRELS. 257 



and osteological characters, but we need go no further here than to specialize 

 their peculiar nostril and bill, the covering of the latter consisting of several 

 horny pieces separated by deep grooves. 



The albatroses are the largest of the petrels, and, indeed, possess a 

 wider spread of wing than any known bird. On the other hand, some 

 of the storm-petrels are hardly larger than a swallow. All of them have 

 a peculiar odour, a sort of musky smell, which clings to the person after 

 handling a number of these birds. The eggs, too, are impregnated with 

 this smell, which adheres to them for years after they have been in a 

 cabinet. 



The petrels lay but one egg, and this is generally concealed under a rock 

 or boulder, the nest being of the flimsiest description, though the albatroses 

 make a rough nest in the open. The young are covered with down, and re- 

 main helpless for some time in the nest ; the down is generally of a sooty 

 colour, but is white in the case of some of the larger albatroses. Mr. Osbert 

 Salvin, in his recent work on the group, recognises four families Pro- 

 cellariidce or storm-petrels, PuffinicU'e or shearwaters, Pdecanoidce or diving- 

 petrels, and Diomedeidce or albatroses. 



There are two sub-families of the Procellariidte, the short-legged petrels 

 (Procellariince), and the long-legged petrels (Oceanitince). In the former we 

 find the storm-petrel of the British coast (Procellaria pelagica), which is the 

 typical form of the group. Jt inhabits the North Atlantic Ocean as far south 

 as West Africa, and enters the Mediterranean Sea. At the nesting time it 

 visits the islands and western coasts of 

 Great Britain, but has not been found 

 breeding on the east coasts of England 

 or Scotland. Another well-known member 

 of the storm-petrels is the fork-tailed or 

 Leach's petrel, which is found throughout 

 the North Atlantic, and also occurs in the 

 Japanese Islands. It is a larger bird than 

 the storm-petrel, and is easily known by its 

 forked tail. It breeds on some of the 

 Outer Hebrides and also on the islands off 

 the coast of Kerry. A curious instance of 

 the way in which petrels are distributed over the ocean, and how very little 

 we really know of their range, has lately been noted in England, where in 

 December, 1895, a specimen of the Canarian fork-tailed petrel was obtained 

 for the first time, at Littlestone in Kent. It is only fourteen years ago that 

 this species was described by Mr. Ridgway from the Sandwich Islands in 

 the Pacific, to which it was believed to be confined. In 1895 Mr. Ogilvie- 

 Grant discovered it on the Salvage Islands in the Atlantic, and now the 

 British Museum contains specimens from Madeira and the Desertas group, 

 as well as from St. Helena. It has also been recently discovered as an in- 

 habitant of the Galapagos Islands off South America. Another remarkable 

 case occurred a few years ago, when a petrel from the Fiji Islands and the 

 New Hebrides, (Estrelata brevipes, one of the rarest of all petrels, turned up 

 unexpectedly in Wales. It had never been heard of before away from the 

 Pacific Ocean. 



This family is numerously represented in all the great oceans of the world, 

 with the exception of the Indian Ocean, where there are not so many species. 

 The British Islands are visited by several species of PiiffmuSy and one, the 

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